Searches for top-Higgs FCNC couplings via the Whj signal with $h\to \gamma\gamma$ at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential to detect top-Higgs flavor-changing neutral current couplings at the LHC by analyzing the process involving W, Higgs, and jet production, focusing on the $h o \gamma\gamma$ decay channel.

Contribution

It introduces a new method to probe top-Higgs FCNC couplings via the $pp o W^- h j$ process and estimates the sensitivity at the 14 TeV LHC.

Findings

The cross section is mainly from the resonant process involving top decay.

The branching ratio $Br(t o qh)$ can be probed down to 0.16% at 3σ with 3000 fb$^{-1}$.

The analysis demonstrates the feasibility of detecting FCNC couplings in future LHC runs.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the process $pp \to W^{-}hj$ induced by the top-Higgs flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) couplings at the LHC. We found that the cross section of $pp \to W^{-}hj$ mainly comes from the resonant process $pp\to W^{-}t\to W^{-}hq$ due to the anomalous $tqH$ couplings (where $q$ denotes up and charm quarks). We further studied the observability of the top-Higgs FCNC couplings through the process $pp \to W^{-}(\to \ell^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\ell}) h( \to \gamma\gamma) j$ and found that the branching ratios $Br(t\to qh)$ can be probed to $0.16\%$ at $3\sigma$ level at 14 TeV LHC with an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$.