Search for flavor-changing neutral currents in top quark decays t -> Hc and t -> Hu in multilepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector


Aaboud M., Aad G., Abbott B., Abdinov O., Abeloos B., Abhayasinghe D. K., ...More

PHYSICAL REVIEW D, vol.98, no.3, 2018 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 98 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 2018
  • Doi Number: 10.1103/physrevd.98.032002
  • Journal Name: PHYSICAL REVIEW D
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Istanbul University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Flavor-changing neutral currents are not present in the Standard Model at tree level and are suppressed in loop processes by the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix; the corresponding rates for top quark decay processes are experimentally unobservable. Extensions of the Standard Model can generate new flavor-changing neutral current processes, leading to signals which, if observed, would be unambiguous evidence of new interactions. A data set conesponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used to search for top quarks decaying to up or charm quarks with the emission of a Higgs boson, with subsequent Higgs boson decay to final states with at least one electron or muon. No signal is observed and limits on the branching fractions B(t -> Hc) < 0.16% and B(t -> Hu) < 0.19% at 95% confidence level are obtained (with expected limits of 0.15% in both cases).