Search for flavour-changing neutral-current couplings between the top quark and the photon with the ATLAS detector at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV

TL;DR

This study searches for rare flavor-changing neutral-current interactions between the top quark and photon using ATLAS data, setting new upper limits on the decay probabilities of top quarks into a photon and an up or charm quark.

Contribution

It introduces a deep neural network approach to distinguish FCNC signals from background in top-quark events at 13 TeV, providing the most stringent limits to date.

Findings

No significant excess observed over background.

Set upper limits on FCNC top-quark decay branching fractions.

Improved constraints on top-quark FCNC interactions.

Abstract

This letter documents a search for flavour-changing neutral currents (FCNCs), which are strongly suppressed in the Standard Model, in events with a photon and a top quark with the ATLAS detector. The analysis uses data collected in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV during Run 2 of the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. Both FCNC top-quark production and decay are considered. The final state consists of a charged lepton, missing transverse momentum, a $b$-tagged jet, one high-momentum photon and possibly additional jets. A multiclass deep neural network is used to classify events either as signal in one of the two categories, FCNC production or decay, or as background. No significant excess of events over the background prediction is observed and 95% CL upper limits are placed on the strength of left- and right-handed FCNC interactions. The 95% CL bounds on the branching fractions for the FCNC top-quark decays, estimated from both top-quark production and decay, are $\mathcal{B}(t\rightarrow u\gamma) < 0.85 \times 10^{-5}$ and $\mathcal{B}(t\to c\gamma) < 4.2 \times 10^{-5}$ for a left-handed $tq\gamma$ coupling, and $\mathcal{B}(t\to u\gamma) < 1.2 \times 10^{-5}$ and $\mathcal{B}(t\to c\gamma) < 4.5 \times 10^{-5}$ for a right-handed coupling.