Study of the reaction $\overline{p}p \to \phi \phi$ from 1.1 to 2.0 GeV/c

A study has been performed of the reaction $\pptofourk$ using in-flight antiprotons from 1.1 to 2.0 GeV/$c$ incident momentum interacting with a hydrogen jet target. The reaction is dominated by the production of a pair of $\phi$ mesons. The $\bar p p \to \phi \phi$ cross section rises sharply above threshold and then falls continuously as a function of increasing antiproton momentum. The overall magnitude of the cross section exceeds expectations from a simple application of the OZI rule by two orders of magnitude. In a fine scan around the $\xi/f_J(2230)$ resonance, no structure is observed. A limit is set for the double branching ratio B($\pbarp\rightarrow\ xi)\times\rm{B}(\xi\rightarrow\phi\phi) \lt 6 \times 10^{-5}$ for a spin 2 resonance of M = 2.235 GeV and $\Gamma$ = 15 MeV.