Production of single top-quark final states at the LHC from supersymmetric FCNC interactions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential for producing single top-quark final states via supersymmetric flavor-changing interactions at the LHC, highlighting significant SUSY-QCD and SUSY-EW effects that could signal new physics.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed calculation of single top-quark production via SUSY FCNC interactions at the LHC, including both SUSY-QCD and SUSY-EW effects, within the unconstrained MSSM.

Findings

SUSY-QCD effects can produce up to 10^5 events per 100 fb^{-1}.

SUSY-EW effects can produce up to 10^3 events per 100 fb^{-1}.

Observation of these processes could indicate supersymmetric new physics.

Abstract

We discuss the production of single top-quark final states by direct supersymmetric flavor-changing interactions at the LHC. The total cross section pp(gg)->t\bar{c}+\bar{t}c is computed at the 1-loop order within the unconstrained MSSM. We prove that SUSY-QCD effects may furnish sizeable production rates amounting up to barely 10^5 t\bar{c}(c\bar{t}) events per 100 fb^{-1} of integrated luminosity, in full compliance with the stringent low-energy constraints from b->s gamma. Furthermore, we show that the cooperative SUSY-EW effects can be sizeable on their own, regardless of the SUSY-QCD contribution, with maximum production rates of the order of 10^3 events per 100 fb^{-1}. Owing to the fact that FCNC production of electrically neutral heavy-quark pairs is virtually absent within the SM, we conclude that the observation of such pp(gg)->t\bar{c}+\bar{t}c processes at the LHC could lead to evidence of new physics - of likely supersymmetric nature.