PhD memoirs #2

At last I seem to have got some breakthrough. It turns out that t­he mathematical results which I have been using for reference and for comparing mine with (for a long time, after putting in much effort and concentration and with quite too many unpleasant experiences, I might add… won’t even go into the details) are themselves in error! This is unfortunate since not only have they been published in a reputed journal but also emanate from the PhD thesis work of a MIT graduate whose late supervisor was a person of high repute (http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/trojan_family/autumn05/Aki.html).

Aah, do I hear you asking how I can be sure of it? Well, I found t­he ‘unreality’ of those results mentioned (rather, exposed) in another research paper, let’s call it 007. And I managed to get a match between mine and 007’s supposedly error-free results (the image below: cyan-colored curve is mine and the black one, 007’s).

 

Of course, it’s possible that both mine and 007’s results are incorrect and I am committing a sacrilege by questioning the PhD work’s integrity but it seems very unlikely at this point – (1) The odds of both 007 authors and myself getting the same incorrect results worked out using completely different techniques are very small (2) One of the authors of 007 is the aforementioned late PhD advisor.

Imagine that!

I wish I could say I feel very sorry for the MIT graduate student (i.e. when he was a graduate student, to be precise)…  I somewhat do... but I have myself struggled a lot at the cost of his errors, which I understand is probably not at all a result of his carelessness but simply a consequence of him being a human.

However, my first emotion was indeed that of elation. From here on, I can progress at a faster pace.. But I don't feel much cheerful. I know that it’s a relatively big achievement for me but I can’t help feeling a little anxious about the next course of action. I have spent way too much time on this and that has put a damper on any sense of celebration that I briefly had. 

I hope things look more interesting from here on, though some excitement does seem to be back.