Single top quark production as a probe of R-parity-violating supersymmetry at pp and p(p)over-bar colliders

We investigate the ability of single top quark production via qq' --> squark --> tb and <q(q)over bar>' --> slepton --> <t(b)over bar> at the CERN LHC and Fermilab Tevatron to probe the strength of R-parity-violating couplings in the minimal supersymmetric model. We found that given the existing bounds on R-parity-violating couplings, single top quark production may be greatly enhanced over that predicted by the standard model, and that both colliders can either discover R-parity-violating SUSY or set strong constraints on the relevant R-parity-violating couplings. We further found that the LHC is much more powerful than the Tevatron in probing the squark couplings, but the two colliders have comparable sensitivity for the slepton couplings. [S0556-2821(98)01301-0].