This directory contains a general-public edition of the PHANTOM thesis. Mathematical formulas and complex algorithms have been translated into plain language explanations while preserving the complete narrative and all research findings.

Build Instructions

Quick Build

From the project root:

make pdf.genpop

Watch Mode (auto-rebuild on changes)

make pdf.genpop.watch

Manual Build

cd paper/src
latexmk -pdf -jobname=main-genpop -f -interaction=nonstopmode -outdir=../build main-genpop.tex

Output Location

The compiled PDF will be at:

paper/build/main-genpop.pdf

What's Different?

Original Technical Version

Complex mathematical formulas and equations
Formal algorithmic pseudocode
Statistical notation and proofs
Assumes advanced math background

General Public Version

Plain language explanations of formulas
Step-by-step algorithm descriptions
Intuitive statistical explanations
Accessible to non-technical readers

Structure

All mirrored chapters follow the same structure as the original:

01-intro.tex - Introduction
02-literature-review.tex - Literature Review
03-methodology.tex - Methodology (most heavily adapted)
04-results.tex - Results
05-discussion.tex - Discussion
06-conclusion.tex - Conclusion

Translation Approach

Following the instructions in INSTRUCTIONS.md, we:

Preserve all language and phrasing from the original
Replace mathematical formulas with inline plain-language explanations
Simplify complex algorithms into readable step descriptions
Maintain all citations, figures, tables, and narrative flow
Keep technical terms when commonly understood
Explain technical concepts inline for general readers

Example Transformations

Mathematical formula:

\hat{q}_{t,i} = \sum_{s \in \mathcal{S}_t} \sum_{k=1}^{L_s} \omega(a_{s,k}) \cdot \mathbb{1}[i_{s,k} = i]

Becomes: "for each session in a time period, we sum up all the events where a specific product was interacted with, and we weight those events by how strong a signal they provide about willingness to pay"

Proof notation:

P(p_{(1)} > t) = [1 - F(t)]^N \to 0

Becomes: "When we raise a number less than 1 to higher and higher powers (as N grows), it decays exponentially toward zero"