Chapter 573 — Interference

The question had haunted him not long after he rose from his coffin. That omnipresent natural force, that seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of energy — while it brought convenience, it also filled Gawain with deep misgivings. All along he had wanted to understand the nature and origin of mana, and to this day the results he and his research team had achieved remained meager.

All they could confirm now was that the source of mana was bound up with the "sun" in the sky, and that its nature... "perhaps" was some kind of wave.

Yes — despite a few practical applications, such as the arcane-net communication technology, and a few calculated conclusions, so long as no observable phenomenon could be found for this thing that genuinely existed, its definition could not be fully settled. At this stage, Gawain and Camille could only say that mana "perhaps" was some kind of wave.

It was a regrettable state of affairs.

It was right there; its properties, its possible nature, were on the very tip of the tongue — yet the crucial observation had become the greatest obstacle standing before the researchers. The mana of the natural world was everywhere — and this had brought both the rapid advancement of magical technology and tremendous difficulty in certain lines of research.

The classic experiment Gawain could think of to verify wave behavior was the double-slit interference experiment. He knew how the double-slit experiment was carried out on Earth — but in this world, that classic experiment was hard to verify, because the mana of the natural environment covered over every observable phenomenon.

The mana intensity of the natural world far exceeded that of the two arcane streams passing through the slits in the experiment; it formed a sheet of white noise upon the reflecting plate, and the pure unidirectional arcane stream that ought to have produced interference was wiped out without a trace. For the same reason, the experiment aimed at observing the mana version of a "Poisson spot" had likewise failed.

The elves' approach was perhaps the best solution — build a dark chamber, and find a way to shield against the mana interference of the natural world.

But that was no easy thing.

On Earth, to keep the strong light of the natural world from spoiling the observation of interference fringes, one need only shield it with an opaque material — but in this world, natural substances capable of blocking mana were exceedingly rare and difficult to work. Costly mana-suppressing crystal was the most suitable material to be found; it could genuinely block mana, and the baffle in the double-slit experiment was made from it. But to fashion mana-suppressing crystal into a dark chamber... even in the Gondor era, that would have been no easy feat.

"Actually, I have another plan," Camille said. "Use a stronger arcane source, so that the energy passing through the double slits exceeds the baseline mana value of the natural world — that way we might observe interference fringes outside a dark chamber. Or even if we cannot observe fringes, at least we might observe two scorch marks — at least we could verify whether mana is truly a wave. By my calculations, the existing rainbow-light cannon fully meets the conditions."

"I have thought of that plan too, but it requires us to find a material more stable and tougher than mana-suppressing crystal," Gawain said, frowning. "Mana-suppressing crystal can block mana, but it has its limits, and something like the rainbow-light cannon... would burn through any baffle at all."

Camille fell silent.

Gawain, after a brief moment's thought, asked, "That elven astromancer who proposed the concept of mana waves — her name is Vilania, is it not?"

"Yes."

"Only forty years... As an elf, she ought to still be in the service of the Elven Court today, oughtn't she."

"Yes. According to Banner? Whitefeather, the astromancer Velania is still in the service of the Elven Court to this day, and continues her research into the theory of magical fluctuations; she is also one of the developers of the 'Purification Array.'"

"The elves are ahead of us... It would be good if we could reach a deeper cooperation with them," Gao Yun said with a soft sigh. "Kamael, do you think... using the residual magical connections of the Great Wall, together with our arcane-net communication terminals and a translation device, we could establish long-distance communication with the Silver Empire?"

"That is a highly challenging idea, but I can give it a try."

Gao Yan nodded. "Then go and try."