  Two recent articles present results that allegedly exclude a possible
multimodal distribution of the hydrated electron in ultraviolet photoelectron
spectra. The first article bases its conclusion on the assumption that the
non-Gaussian genuine band shape previously retrieved for the solvated electron
in liquid water is an artefact arising from insufficient electron scattering
cross sections used in the retrieval. The second article excludes a multimodal
band shape based on a photoelectron spectrum of the solvated electron in water
clusters recorded at a single ultraviolet photon energy, and it further assumes
that cluster results are transferable to the liquid without further
justification. Here, we show that based on current data multimodal
distributions cannot be unambiguously excluded. Furthermore, the
transferability of cluster results to the liquid can neither be justified nor
refuted on the basis of currently available experimental ultraviolet
photoelectron spectra.
