[Clascomment] OPT-IN:Measurement of Nuclear Transparency Ratios for Protons and Neutrons

[Reinhard Schumacher]

Dear Meytal, Or, Eli, Larry, et al.,

I am very sorry to take until the very last minute to comment on your
draft paper "Measurement of Nuclear Transparency Ratios for Protons
and Neutrons".  It is a nice paper and I think it has some chance of
being accepted in PRL.  However, when I read it over I thought that it
has some structural problems that, if adopted, would require
rearranging some paragraphs.  Please take these suggestions as you see
fit.

Abstract: The first few sentences are more in the way of an
introduction, not an abstract.  The abstract should tell the reader
most succinctly what you have done, not a general introduction to the
topic.  I would start the Abstract with "This paper presents..." and
possibly move the preceding 3 sentences to the main body of the text.
But in fact, the first section of the main text more or less says the
same thing.  So I would consider just axing the first 3 sentences in
the present abstract.

line 67++: You take a long time in this paper to define what it is
that you actually computed in this study.  It might make sense to move
the paragraphs from lines 238+ to 274 here to near the beginning of
the paper.  As it stands now, I worry that readers will not have the
patience to plow through all the experimental details before being
told how the observables are defined in detail.

line 73 - 75: the statement about the target is redundant with the
whole paragraph about the target system, lines 87 to 100.  You could
delete lines 73- 75.

line 137: coulomb --> Coulomb

line 238+ : the notation "#N" strikes me as awkward because it is so
non-standard.  Can't you pick some other letter?  Perhaps use a script
"N" or a lower-case "n" to avoid the hash symbol.

line 277: word --> world

Table IV: if you are feeling compulsive about details, change the "'"
symbols for "prime" to proper "dashes", such as in line 320.

Line 325: Proton --> proton

Finally, use consistent tense throughout.   Best would be if you use past
tense until you start discussing the results.   Generally, don't mix tense
within a single paragraph.

Good luck with this paper.

Reinhard