• Accepted Paper

Enhancing the sensitivity to FCNC top decays t→cH and t→cS in the boosted regime at CLIC

Shuo Yang, Peng-Bo Zhao, and Ji-Chong Yang

Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 24 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/979f-zqhv

Abstract

The top quark, having the largest Yukawa coupling to the Higgs sector, provides a unique window into electroweak symmetry breaking and possible new physics beyond the Standard Model. Searches for rare top-quark processes are thus powerful probes of new physics. In this work, we investigate the flavor-changing neutral-current (FCNC) top-quark decays t→cH and t→cS, where S denotes a light scalar, at the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) with a center-of-mass energy of s=1.5TeV. Our analysis focuses on a kinematic regime distinct from most previous studies, in which the top quarks are typically highly boosted. To enhance signal discrimination in the boosted regime, we construct multi-channel jet images and employ a convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier to capture jet-substructure patterns relevant to the FCNC signals. Assuming an integrated luminosity of 4ab−1, we obtain the expected 95% C.L. upper limit BR(t→cH)×BR(H→bb‾)<5.27×10−5. For the exotic scalar singlet, expected 95% C.L. upper limits between 3.25×10−5 and 5.26×10−5 are obtained for BR(t→cS)×BR(S→bb‾), for scalar masses between 30 and 80GeV.

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