Photoproduction of Pseudoscalar Mesons off Nuclei at Forward Angles

With the advent of new photon tagging facilities and novel experimental technologies it has become possible to perform photoproduction cross section measurements of pseudoscalar mesons on nuclei with a percent level accuracy. The extraction of the radiative decay widths from these measurements at forward angles is done by the Primakoff method, which requires theoretical treatment of all processes participating in these reactions at the same percent level. In this work we review the theoretical approach to meson photoproduction amplitudes in the electromagnetic and strong fields of nuclei at forward direction. The most updated description of these processes are presented based on the Glauber theory of multiple scattering. In particular, the effects of final state interactions, corrections for light nuclei, and photon shadowing in nuclei are discussed.