$ϕ$-meson production in proton-proton collisions

Abstract

The production of $ϕ$-mesons in proton-proton collisions is investigated within a relativistic meson-exchange model of hadronic interactions. The experimental prerequisites for extracting the $NNϕ$ coupling strength from this reaction are discussed. In the absence of a sufficient set of data, which would enable an accurate determination of the $NNϕ$ coupling strength, we perform a combined analysis, based on some reasonable assumptions, of the existing data for both $ω$- and $ϕ$-meson production. We find that the recent data from the DISTO collaboration on the angular distribution of the $ϕ$ meson indicate that the $NNϕ$ coupling constant is small. The analysis yields values for $g_{NNϕ}$ that are compatible with the OZI rule.