phi-meson production in proton-proton collisions - art. no. 055209

The production of phi mesons in proton-proton collisions is investigated wi thin a relativistic meson-exchange model of hadronic interactions. The expe rimental prerequisites for extracting the NN phi coupling strength from thi s reaction are discussed. In the absence of a sufficient set of data, which would enable an accurate determination of the NN phi coupling strength, we perform a combined analysis, based on some reasonable assumptions, of the existing data for both omega- and phi-meson production. We find that the re cent data from the DISTO Collaboration on the angular distribution of the p hi meson indicate that the NN phi coupling constant is small. The analysis yields values for g(NN phi) that are compatible with the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule. [S0556-2813(99)00611-1].