Search forϕMesons Produced at Highptinp-Be Collisions at 300 GeV

Abstract

We have searched for production of $\varphi$ mesons at high transverse momenta. Upper limits with a 95% confidence level on the ratio $\frac{\varphi }{{\pi }^{-}}$ ranging from 0.055 at $p_t=2.48\mathrm{}$ GeV/c to 0.103 at $p_t=3.33\mathrm{}$ GeV/c are given, ruling out the $\varphi$ meson as a significant source of the high-$p_t$ leptons observed to be produced directly in hadron collisions.