TEST OF SPECIAL RELATIVITY AND EQUIVALENCE PRINCIPLE FROM K PHYSICS -ART. NO. 025003

A violation of local Lorentz invariance (VLI) and hence the special th eory of relativity or a violation of the equivalence principle (VEP) i n the kaon system can, in principle, induce oscillations between K-0 a nd (K) over bar(0). We construct a general formulation in which simult aneous pairwise diagonalization of mass, momentum, weak or gravitation al eigenstates is not assumed. We discuss this problem in a general wa y and point out that, as expected, the VEP and VLI contributions are i ndistinguishable. We then insist on the fact that VEP or VLI can occur even when CPT is conserved. Possible CP violation of the superweak ty pe induced by VEP or VLI is introduced and discussed. We show that the general VEP mechanism (or the VLI mechanism, but not both simultaneou sly), with or without conserved CPT, could be clearly tested experimen tally through the energy dependence of the K-L- K-S mass difference an d of eta(+-), eta(00), delta. Constraints imposed by present experimen ts are calculated. [S0556-2821(98)05212-6].