Critical view to “IGEX ⁷⁶Ge neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment: Prospects for next generation experiments”

Recently, a paper entitled “The IGEX ⁷⁶Ge neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment: Prospects for next generation experiments” has been published [ Phys. Rev. D 65 092007 (2002)]. In view of the recently reported evidence for neutrinoless double-beta decay [ Mod. Phys. Lett. A 16 2409 (2001); Found. Phys. 31 1181 (2002); Phys. Lett. B 586 198 (2004)], it is particularly unfortunate that the IGEX paper is rather incomplete in its presentation. We would like to point out in this Comment that and why it would be highly desirable to make more details about the experimental conditions and the analysis of IGEX available. We list some of the main points, which require further explanation. We also point to an arithmetic mistake in the analysis of the IGEX data, the consequence of which are too high half-life limits given in that paper.