Chapter 441: Crisis
"This is a hypothesis made exclusively for explaining the photoelectric effect. It does not apply extensively as a standard hypothesis is supposed to be, for it cannot be used to explain other phenomena of light. It even contradicts to what the diffraction image tells us. With no experiment as its support, the hypothesis is rather doubtful. It is a hypothesis with logical, succinct, and beautiful reasoning yet goes the opposite way from the true situations...
"Arcanists have made lots of similar hypotheses like this one. When a hypothesis does not have broad application, it usually means that the direction of the hypothesis is problematic. I share the same opinion for this paper...
"I believe that Mr. Lucien Evans is also aware of this fact. He knows that his hypothesis contradicts Mr. Brook's electromagnetism system, as well as the series of classic photics patterns. This is why he added to the last part of his paper that he is only addressing the instantaneity, while light was still wavelike from the whole picture."
The more Lauren wrote, the angrier he got. What was preventing him from scolding Lucien right in the face was the fact that Lucien was the Lord of Storm's student, a member of the Review Board, and someone with many awards. In his eyes, Lucien should be realistic, give up his ridiculous dream pursuing quantum theory, and open his eyes to see the stable and perfect current arcana system.
Taking a deep breath, Lauren continued to write. "... Also, this hypothesis, which seems to be another version of the particle theory, starts from the idea that energy is not transferred successively, which is absurd. Even those who support the particle theory would not agree with this. However, what has to be admitted is that this is a complete paper that can be quite inspiring, and it offers a temporary solution to explain the photoelectric effect. So my review decision would be:
"It is a paper worth of broad discussion, but its value is also limited to this for now. When there is precise evidence support, the review result can be changed. My current suggestion is that one arcana credit and five arcana points should be given as the reward."
When writing the conclusion, Lauren was being quite cunning. He dared not to speak out his true opinion, because Lucien Evans was very famous and the young genius arcanist also had lots of support from his teacher. If Lauren was not being careful enough, he might lose his job and position on the Board.
Lauren had his reason for letting the paper pass. In the Congress, there were still supporters of the particle theory of light. If he rejected Lucien Evans's paper using the fact that the paper contradicted Brook's electromagnetism system, the same thing would happen to all the submitted papers advocating the wave theory, as the Review Board members supporting the particle theory would reject the wave papers using the fact that they contradicted Douglas' light speed experiment and the photoelectric effect. Therefore, he had to make a compromise. Although wave theory had taken the more dominant position out, the particle theory out there had not admitted its failure yet.
After he finished writing the comment, Lauren picked up his pipe and took a drag. There was a cold smile on his face — He was going to recommend Lucien Evans's paper to Drummond and make him publish the paper on Arcana as a paper open for discussion, whether Lucien Evans wanted this or not. This young genius had to prepare himself for the endless criticism and attack.
Because currently no other theory could be found to explain the hypothesis of energy quantum, rarely were there any arcanists who would write a paper refuting it. But now the situation was different: Lucien was directly challenging one of the two classic arcana systems. In other words, he had chosen the opposite side against most arcanists. With classical theories and experimental data, they would not let Lucien get around that easily!
Lauren then wrote a letter to Drummond and sent it. Standing up, he paced back and forth in his study with his hands folded behind his back, and he murmured to himself, "The best way is to refute his hypothesis by using a hard experiment result. A decisive result will leave Lucien Evans no space for finding excuses..."
...
In the Allyn branch of Moonsong League, a unique-looking, middle-aged man was reading a paper. He had lots of electric-arc-shaped tattoos, and there were fine tiny electric currents sparking on his bare head as if he had thick silver hair. His eyes slightly squinted, in which there were electric sparks as well.
"Finally, Lucien Evans has revealed himself as a supporter of the particle theory. Or... is he trying to promote his quantum theory?" Teixeira, the level-seven arcanist and eighth-circle sorcerer, sneered. "No matter what his purpose is, this paper is useless except that it does explain the photoelectric effect. He scraped together the entire paper just for the sake of explaining the effect. Of course, Lucien Evans does not have any hard experiment evidence to support, or his head would have been exploded from seeing the experiment image.
"Lucien Evans had written this much words and formulas in the paper... I'll let the paper pass but only admit its value for discussion. Heh, I wonder how that crazy hound, Artil, would respond?"
Teixeira then started putting his thoughts down into written words. "... It is undeniable that the paper deserves some discussion, and it offers us a possible direction in explaining the photoelectric effect. Two arcana credits and six arcana points are suggested to be given as the reward."
Before, Teixeira had nothing against Lucien. But now it was different as Lucien was attacking the system of electromagnetism, which was the foundation of Teixeira's cognitive world, using the particle theory and the quantum theory.
If it had not been for Lucien's many previous achievements, Teixeira almost started doubting that if Lucien was actually a real arcana genius like what people said.
Putting down the quill-pen, Teixeira picked up the materials on the photoelectric effect, which had been his very interest recently. As he read further, he could not help frowning.
If Lucien Evans's hypothesis was applied, the photoelectric effect indeed could be explained precisely and briefly.
"Why..." Teixeira was rather bothered. "This hypothesis completely contradicts the classic experiment image, but it could explain the photoelectric effect which contradicts with the wave theory..."
...
Unwilling to see Brook, his students, and his supporters, Artil chose to live in the small town which was his hometown. His black, pointy magic tower always attracted lots of attention from the residents and travellers, who were in awe of it.
In his study, the extremely furious look on Artil's face had been replaced by appreciation and ecstasy,
"Haha, Light quantum, light quantum... Don't think I can't recognize you when you just changed the word! It's just another name for the quantum photon in the particle theory! Portions, with a minimum limit... Isn't that particles?!
"Quantizing light is no more than another exposition for particle theory, and the hypothesis explained the photoelectric effect perfectly! Lucien Evans deserves the reputation given to him! He's a genius! For sure, he's the most promising one who's gonna be a grand arcanist in the future!"
Lucien's proposal for launching the artificial planet helped Douglas greatly, and now he was explicitly supporting particle theory. Therefore, Artil started regarding him as his most trusted friend.
He felt thrilled imagining how those idiots who supported the wave theory of light would respond to the paper.
Feeling rather refreshed, Artil started writing to Drummond. He gritted his teeth while maintaining a big smile on his face. The only part that he was not perfectly happy with was the last paragraph of the paper, as it sounded a bit hesitant. But it did not really matter. If no one could overturn Lucien's hypothesis in a year, the fifty thousand arcana points would go to Lucien Evans. In fact, Artil wished that Lucien Evans could have taken away the points already!
After sending the copy of the paper to Drummond, Artil cheerfully thought to himself that now Lucien's hypothesis of energy quantum had sounded more reasonable to him if he set off and think deeper from the perspective of the particle theory.
...
In Sorcerer Administrative Department, Eric received the review result of Lucien's paper.
As the witness of Lucien's multiple success, Eric turned the pages out of curiosity. Then his face stiffened, as he was also a firm supporter of the wave theory of light.
After he skimmed through the paper and read the comments, Eric had the impulse to write something to refute Lucien's idea. However, what happened when Lucien first came up with the periodic table of elements came back to his mind. At that time, Lucien's paper also got a very poor result, but it turned out to be rather valuable later when the new elements were discovered. The two board members that reviewed the paper apologized to him and re-evaluated the paper, giving an extremely high appraisal this time.
"This paper also contains many hypotheses based on the existence of the light quantum... Maybe..." Eric started feeling suspicious, but he soon decided to stop thinking about it. "... I should wait until an accurate experiment comes out..."
...
Under Lauren's effort, although it was still around two to three weeks ahead before the next issue of Arcana, all the arcanists had already been informed that Lucien Evans, the young genius arcanist, used the particle theory to explain the photoelectric effect and had put forward the hypothesis of light quantum. Many were hurling abuse at Lucien. But most people, like Eric, were more cautious and chose to remain silent for most of the time due to the many awards that Lucien had won. They were afraid that, if they get too emotional, once Lucien could carry out a solid experiment to support his paper, their head would explode.
Those people's attitude was further shaken when they found out that Lucien's hypothesis indeed could explain the photoelectric effect. Although from time to time, people would whisper criticism against Lucien's hypothesis, they were still waiting, waiting for the final answer.
In Allyn, the intense atmosphere lingered. Even Lazar and the apprentices had felt people's hostility. However, Lucien was not affected by it at all. He was still working on improving his meditation and constructing his sixth-circle magic.
Yet, radicals exist in every population. By the end of the month, Lucien received a thick pile of letters. These were all anonymous threatening letters.
Smiling, Lucien leafed through the letters, feeling like that he had turned into the shared public enemy of Allyn. However, when he saw one of the letters, he suddenly frowned,
"... Maybe I'm not capable of killing you, but what about your friends and students? Take back your ridiculous hypothesis, and admit your fault in front of all arcanists!"