Comment to “Observation of the Neutron Radiative Decay” by R. U. Khafizov et al., Pis’ma Zh. Éksp. Teor. Fiz. 83, 7 (2006) [JETP Lett. 83, 5 (2006)

Abstract

Herewith, we formally deny any responsibility for the content of the paper commented on. The manuscript was submitted for publication without informing at least four of the other authors, viz. N. Severijns, O. Zimmer, H.-F. Wirth, and D. Rich. This violates our rights as collaborators. The analysis presented and the manuscript itself have not been discussed and also have not been approved by the entire collaboration prior to submission. Besides this formal incorrectness, we also criticize the content of the paper (it is of low quality and is premature). Not only the interpretation but also the presentation of the data is not comprehensive and does not fulfill the minimum scientific standards. These views are shared by J. Byrne, who is collaborating on the project as well but who was not mentioned in the paper. The coincidence spectrum shown in Fig. 5 contains a forest of peaks. Only the two major peaks are explained. The highest peak is called “zero or false coincidences” with reference to a publication by another group, where this peak is not discussed at all. To our understanding, it might be due to a physics event such as, for example, detection by the proton detector of an electron bremsstrahlung photon created in the electron detector, a coincidence with the detection of an electron by the electron detector (as seems to be suggested in the paper), or cross-talk of the electronics of