Can linear transformations bend a straight line? Comment on “Author Correction: Magnetic field screening in hydrogen-rich high-temperature superconductors”

Abstract

Minkov et al. (2022) claims to show magnetization measurements that demonstrate that sulfur hydride and lanthanum hydride under pressure are high temperature superconductors. In Hirsch and Marsiglio (2023), it was pointed out that Figs. 3a and 3e of Minkov et al. (2022) in its original form, Ref. [3], were inconsistent with each other according to the figure caption and text in Ref. [3]. Recently, the authors of Minkov et al. (2022) published an “Author Correction” Minkov et al. (2023) to the original form of Minkov et al. (2022) explaining that several linear transformations were used to obtain the data published in Fig. 3a from measured data published in Fig. 3e. Here I show that data shown in Fig. 3a of Minkov et al. (2022) are not related by any set of linear transformations to data published in Fig. 3e of Minkov et al. (2022), contrary to what is stated in the “Author Correction” Minkov et al. (2023) and in the corrected Minkov et al. (2022). Implications of this finding are discussed.