Interpretation of Tests of Time-Reversal Invariance

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Abstract
Some of the most sensitive tests of time-reversal invariance in particle and nuclear physics involve the measurement of certain polarization quantities in elastic scattering which are thought to be exactly zero when time-reversal invariance holds. It is shown that a nonzero result for such quantities need not indicate a violation of time-reversal invariance, but can be the consequence of a dynamics which is time-reversal invariant but which violates rotation or Lorentz invariance. These two alternatives can be told apart by subsidiary measurements.