Polarization observables in the reaction $NN \to NN \Phi$

Abstract

We study the reaction $NN \to NN \Phi$ slightly above the threshold within an extended one-boson exchange model which also accounts for $uud$ knock-out. It is shown that polarization observables, like the beam-target asymmetry, are sensible quantities for identifying a $s \bar s$ admixture in the nucleon wave function on the few per cent level.