The sign of the φ - ω mixing and the origin of violation of the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule

Abstract Violation of the OZI rule is analysed in terms of the state mixing. The sign of the φ-ω mixing indicates that the dominant contribution to the OZI rule violation comes from the SU(3) octet intermediate states rather than singlet states in the SU(3) invariant unitarity correction. This fact makes a selection of the currently known models. Simple models are proposed for the violation mechanism to give the correct sign.