Meson and hyperon production results from the DISTO spectrometer at SATURNE

The production of eta, eta', omega, phi, mesons, as well as Lambda and Sigm a hyperons has been measured in proton-proton reactions with an incident be am momentum of 3.67 GeV/c with DISTO spectrometer at SATURNE. The first obs ervation of the phi meson near the production threshold and the phi/omega c ross sections ratio has been compared to predictions based on the OZI rule and on one-boson-exchange models. Measured inclusive cross section for K- m esons production is about a factor of 20 lower than for inlcusive K+ produc tion at the same CM energy above threshold. This fact is in strong contrast to cross sections observed in sub-threshold heavy ion collisions. The prod uction of eta and eta' masons has also been measured, in an effort to gain information on the eta'-nucleon coupling. The normal spin transfer coeffici ent (D-N N) has been determined for exclusive hyperon production with a pol arized beam. A large negative coefficient has been observed, which is quali tatively consistent with expectations for a mechanism dominated by kaon-exc hange and rescattering.