A study has been performed of the reaction $\overline{p}\overrightarrow{p}{4K}^{\pm }$ using in-flight antiprotons from 1.1 to 2.0 GeV/c incident momentum interacting with a hydrogen jet target. The reaction is dominated by the production of a pair of φ mesons. The $\overline{p}\overrightarrow{p}\phi \phi$ cross section rises sharply above threshold and then falls continuously as a function of increasing antiproton momentum. The overall magnitude of the cross section exceeds expectations from a simple application of the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule by two orders of magnitude. In a fine scan around the $\xi {/f}_J\mathrm{}\left(2230\right)\mathrm{}$ resonance, no structure is observed. A limit is set for the double branching ratio $\mathrm{B}\left(\overrightarrow{\xi }\overline{p}p\right)\times \mathrm{B}\left(\overrightarrow{\xi }\phi \phi \right)<\mathrm{}6\mathrm{}\times {10}^{-5}$ for a spin 2 resonance of $\mathrm{M}=2.235\mathrm{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{GeV}$ and $\Gamma =15\mathrm{}\mathrm{MeV}.\mathrm{}$

• Received 13 January 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.57.5370