Inclusive ϕ production inK − p interactions at 110 GeV/c and search for structure in φ π−

Results on inclusive ϕ production inK−p interactions at 110 GeV/c are presented. The production cross section is found to be larger than in πp andpp interactions at similar energies, suggesting OZI allowed\(s\bar s\) fusion to be the dominant mechanism in ϕ production. Thex distributions of ϕ and\(\bar K^{*0} \) are found to be similar to each other over the entirex 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\(\bar K^{*0} \). There is no evidence of a narrowφπ− state around 2.1 GeV/c2 as suggested byK+ experiments, but there is some excess of events in the region 1.94−1.98 GeV/c2 consistent with theF-meson mass as observed ine+e− experiments.