Production of single top-quark final states at the LHC from supersymmetric FCNC interactions
Abstract
We discuss the production of single top-quark final states by direct supersymmetric flavor-changing interactions at the LHC. The total cross section pp(gg)->tc+tc is computed at the 1-loop order within the unconstrained MSSM. We prove that SUSY-QCD effects may furnish sizeable production rates amounting up to barely 105 tc(ct) events per 100 fb-1 of integrated luminosity, in full compliance with the stringent low-energy constraints from b->s gamma. Furthermore, we show that the cooperative SUSY-EW effects can be sizeable on their own, regardless of the SUSY-QCD contribution, with maximum production rates of the order of 103 events per 100 fb-1. Owing to the fact that FCNC production of electrically neutral heavy-quark pairs is virtually absent within the SM, we conclude that the observation of such pp(gg)->tc+tc processes at the LHC could lead to evidence of new physics - of likely supersymmetric nature.