Omega meson production in proton-proton collisions

The TOF spectrometer is an external experiment fed by the proton accelerator COSY, which is located at the Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany. While this detector does not utilize a magnetic field for particle identification, it, however, stands out for its high acceptance (approx. 2π in the laboratory frame) and versatility. TOF measures the velocity-vectors of all charged particles, which then are used to completely reconstruct the event pattern. Due to the modular design of the TOF detector, its components can be assembled to ideally match different experimental requirements. This makes it a multipurpose device, which has shown results for many hadronic channels, starting from the pion threshold up to excess energies as high as 1GeV. One of the experimental programs is dedicated to the ω meson production. In proton-proton interactions, this channel has remained largely unstudied until the late 1990s. Then, first experimental data in the direct vicinity of the threshold and at an excess energy of ε=320 MeV became available. We have published data on ω production for two (intermediate) excess energies of ε=93 MeV and ε=173 MeV. In parallel, a considerable interest on the part of theory arose, since the reaction dynamics of ω-meson production in nucleon-nucleon collisions has an impact on many fields of modern physics. For example, there is an ongoing discussion whether 'missing resonances' may (help to) explain the phenomena observed in dense matter. These resonances would couple to the pω, but not to the pπ channel. Although predicted by many authors, until now no pω resonance was found experimentally; the strangeness content of the nucleon is still an open question. One possible key to an answer is the ratio of the total cross sections of ω to φ - mesons, which experimentally is about a factor of seven larger than simple SU predictions (often referred to as 'violation of the OZI-rule'). However, this comparison is only valid assuming similar production processes for both mesons - which necessarily requires similar angular distributions. For the ω-meson, differential observables are completely lacking below =173 MeV. Therefore, new data are needed. In this talk, results of an experiment at excess energies of 93 MeV and 173 MeV will be shown. This will include the presentation of total cross sections as well as angular distributions. In addition, a comparison to the φ -production will be sketched, and a vague indication for a pω -resonance will be presented. (authors)