Strange particle production in anti PP annihilation processes

Nucleon-Antinucleon annihilation is inherently a short range (less than or equal to 1 f.) process involving a spatial overlap of the two hadrons. This feature has stimulated much theoretical interest in this process as a testing ground for models of the underlying quark degrees of freedom. Microscopic models have been proposed to describe annihilation into both two and three meson final states, in both strange and nonstrange channels, and into nonmesonic two hyperon final states. The main issues in the analysis of mesonic final states are reviewed. A new investigation at LEAR of anti ΛΛ production in anti PP collisions near threshold is discussed. A proposed study of the reaction anti PP → K/sub s/K/sub s/ is described in the context of a search for the xi(2220) resonance