Photon initiated single top quark production via flavor-changing neutral currents at the LHC
Abstract
Single top quark production is a powerful process to search for new physics signs. In this work we propose and investigate a search for top quark flavor-changing neutral currents (FCNCs) via a photon using direct single top quark production events in proton-proton collisions at the LHC at CERN. We show that the direct single top quark final state can provide constraints on the strengths of top-quark-γ and top-quark-gluon FCNC couplings simultaneously. Results of a search for direct single top quark production at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV performed by the ATLAS Collaboration are used to set first experimental limits on the anomalous FCNC top decay branching fractions B (t →u γ )<0.05 % and B (t →c γ )<0.14 % via direct single top quark production. Finally, the sensitivity of the proposed channel for probing the top-quark-γ couplings at 13 TeV is presented.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review D
- Pub Date:
- March 2017
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevD.95.054014
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1609.04838
- Bibcode:
- 2017PhRvD..95e4014G
- Keywords:
-
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
- E-Print:
- 19 pages, 6 figures, 6 tables