Tracing the Roots of Dual Nature of Matter and Radiation in Science and Religion

Abstract

Duality (Dual Nature) is a universal character of our life in this Universe. There is an analogy of dual nature of radiation and matter in the domain of Indian Philosophy and Sikh religion, where Ultimate Reality is revealed to exist in its dual nature as sarguna and nirguna Brahman. The concept of Dual Nature of radiation has been in existence since the historical times but it was Max Planck who introduced it on firm footing to explain black body radiation spectrum. Louis de Broglie proposed the concept of dual nature of matter in 1924 in his doctoral thesis. It was established during investigations of Photoelectric effect and Compton effect. The real break-through in interpreting dual nature of matter and radiation may be ascribed to the advent of Quantum Mechanics. It was observed that in the microscopic world of particles, classical concepts of wave and particle fail to justify the experimental investigations; hence there is a need to invoke quantum concepts.