Inclusive Φ production in K^-p interactions at 110 GeV/c and search for structure in φ π^-

Abstract

Results on inclusive φ production in K ^- p interactions at 110 GeV/c are presented. The production cross section is found to be larger than in π p and pp interactions at similar energies, suggesting OZI allowed s^-s fusion to be the dominant mechanism in φ production. The x distributions of φ and K^-∗0 are found to be similar to each other over the entire x range suggesting an overall strangeness suppression factor of 0.20±0.04 in the sea to be the dominant source of the difference in the cross section for φ and K^-∗0. There is no evidence of a narrow Φπ^- state around 2.1 GeV/c² as suggested by K ⁺ experiments, but there is some excess of events in the region 1.94-1.98 GeV/c² consistent with the F-meson mass as observed in e ⁺ e ^- experiments.