Comments on "eta -> gamma gamma Decay Width via the Primakoff Cross Section"

Abstract

In a recent article by Rodrigues et al. [1] eta photo-nuclear data taken by Browman et al. [2] in 1974 were refit as a means to extract the eta->gamma gamma decay width. The key assertion in the author's analysis is attributing backgrounds in the eta angular distribution to nuclear incoherent production only. We disagree with this assertion and question the validity of the fitting procedure utilized in [1]. A reanalysis of the Cornell Primakoff data requires a detailed understanding of the hadronic and accidental backgrounds in the data, and the authors of [1] have not accomplished this task. [1] T. E. Rodrigues et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 101, 012301 (2008). [2] A. Browman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 32, 1067 (1974).