TESTING SUPERSYMMETRY IN WEAK DECAYS BY MEANS OF TIME-REVERSAL INVARIANCE

The minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model allows for some of the coupling strengths to be complex parameters. The presence of such imaginary phases can lead to violations of time reversal invar iance, which can be tested if correlations in products of an odd numbe r of polarizations and momenta are measured and found to be different from zero. As an example, we consider the triple product J . (p1 x p2) in the beta-decay of the neutron, of the SIGMA-, and in the decay K3m u+. For these low-energy decays, we find that the present experimental precision is not enough to provide useful bounds on combinations of s uch phases and the masses of the supersymmetric particles. At higher e nergies, the same time reversal violating correlation in the semilepto nic decay of the t quark is of the order of alpha(s)/pi, made bigger b y the large mass of the decaying quark.