Search for charged-lepton flavor violation in top quark production and decay in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV

Abstract

Results are presented from a search for charged-lepton flavor violating (CLFV) interactions in top quark production and decay in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The events are required to contain one oppositely charged electron-muon pair in the final state, along with at least one jet identified as originating from a bottom quark. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb${}^{-1}$, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This analysis includes both the production (q $\to$ e$\mu$t) and decay (t $\to$ e$\mu$q) modes of the top quark through CLFV interactions, with q referring to a u or c quark. These interactions are parametrized using an effective field theory approach. With no significant excess over the standard model expectation, the results are interpreted in terms of vector-, scalar-, and tensor-like CLFV four-fermion effective interactions. Finally, observed exclusion limits are set at 95% confidence levels on the respective branching fractions of a top quark to an e$\mu$ pair and an up (charm) quark of 0.13 $\times$ 10${}^{-6}$ (1.31 $\times$ 10${}^{-6}$), 0.07 $\times$ 10${}^{-6}$ (0.89 $\times$ 10${}^{-6}$), and 0.25 $\times$ 10${}^{-6}$ (2.59 $\times$ 10${}^{-6}$) for vector, scalar, and tensor CLFV interactions, respectively.

Replaced with the published version. Added the journal reference and the DOI. All the figures and tables can be found at http://cms-results.web.cern.ch/cms-results/public-results/publications/TOP-19-006 (CMS Public Pages)

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• Probing effective operators in single top quark production in association with a lepton-neutrino pair