Study of the phi-pi0 transition form factor

Abstract

Recently the BaBar Collaboration published new data on the cross section for the annihilation e+e- -> phi pi0, obtained using the initial state radiation technique at a center of mass energy of 10.6 GeV. Such a process represents an interesting test bed for the quark model. Indeed, since the phi-pi0 production via e+e- annihilation proceeds through a mechanism which violates the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule, the corresponding cross section could be characterized by contributions from non-qqbar bound states, like hybrids or tetraquarks. The phi-pi0 cross section is analyzed in connection with other data coming from different processes, that involve the same mesons, using a method which implements the analyticity in the phi-pi0 transition form factor by means of a dispersion relation procedure.