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Exploring top-quark signatures of heavy flavor-violating scalars at the LHC

Alexandre Alves1,2,*, Eduardo da Silva Almeida3,†, Alex G. Dias2, and Diego S. V. Gonçalves2,‡

  • *Contact author: aalves@unifesp.br
  • †Contact author: almeidae@ufba.br
  • ‡Contact author: diego.vieira@ufabc.edu.br
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 075038 – Published 21 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/8kcm-wfpt

Abstract

In this work, we study flavor-violating scalars (flavons) in a range of large masses that have not been explored previously. We model the interactions with an effective field theory formulation where the flavon is heavier than the top quark. In addition, we assume that the flavon only couples to fermions of the standard model in a flavor-changing way, making it easier to escape experimental constraints. As the flavon couples strongly to top quarks, same-sign and opposite-sign top-quark pair signals can be explored in the search for those particles. We investigate the possibility of probing flavons through their interactions with a top quark plus up and charm quarks for effective couplings of order 10−2  TeV and masses in the ∼200–1400  GeV range in the 14 TeV LHC in scenarios with up to 3000/fb.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 075038– Published 21 October, 2025
  • Received 6 August 2025
  • Revised 25 September 2025
  • Accepted 29 September 2025
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