Pseudoscalar and vector meson production in NN collisions

Abstract

Heavy meson production in nucleon-nucleon collisions is discussed within a meson exchange model of hadronic interactions, paying special attention to the basic dynamics that determine the behavior of the cross sections near the threshold energy. The pp-->pp\phi reaction is discussed as an example of the production of vector mesons in NN collisions. For the pseudoscalar meson production, results for the \eta production in both the pp and pn collisions are presented.

Comments: 27 pages, 9 figures, invited lecture presented at the symposium on "Threshold Meson Production in pp and pd interactions, June 2001, Cracow, Poland