[Clascomment] Comment on L(1405) electroproduction paper

[Reinhard Schumacher]

Hello Mac,

	You asked me about the background data and fit shown in Figure 4 of the 
draft paper.  This fit was done to all the data that passes the 
exclusive channel selection procedures, and that are in the final 
spectra, notably in Figure 5.  What Figure 4 shows is that there is a 
visible bump of the K* background standing out from the broad three-body 
distribution.  The ratio of the two, green to green-plus-blue, is what 
gets fixed by this fit.  In draft the paper we said the ratio is 15%, 
but we realize now that that may have confused you.  That specific 
number had no physical meaning:  it is only the fraction of simulated K* 
events of the total K* plus 3-body events that were generated in the 
Monte Carlo.  We use the ratio to fix the background contributions to 
each other when we do the final fits.  The paragraph has been rewritten 
to avoid mentioning a specific number at this point, and to make the 
procedure more clear.

	You can see the extent to which the simulated background models the 
junk under the signal region in Figs 7 and 8.  The threshold behavior 
comes up much faster than the simulated background allows, so we are 
sure that we are seeing real signal events in the threshold region, not 
a reflection of a background channel.

	We hope to have a revised draft of the paper out pretty soon after the 
end of the review period in which you will see the revised text.

Cheers,
Reinhard


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Reinhard Schumacher         Department of Physics, 5000 Forbes Ave.
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, U.S.A.
phone: 412-268-5177         web: www-meg.phys.cmu.edu/~schumach
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