Study of the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule in exclusive photoproduction reactions

Abstract

A study of the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka (OZI) rule has been performed in a high-energy photon beam by comparing the production ratios of exclusive meson final states. Measurement of the ratio $\frac{\sigma (\gamma A\to \phi {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}A)}{\sigma (\gamma A\to \omega {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}A)}=0.10\mathrm{}\pm 0.02$ is evidence that the OZI rule does not suppress this photoproduction reaction to the extent observed in $\phi$ decays and in production by hadrons. The ratios of other exclusive photoproduction reactions are also presented.