Flavor Physics Constraints on TeV Scale Color Sextet Scalars

Abstract

In this work we present an analysis of flavor violating effects mediated by color sextet scalars, which arise naturally in left-right symmetric gauge theories based on SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R \times SU(4)_C group. The sextets, denoted here by \Delta_{dd}, Delta_{ud} and \Delta_{uu}, couple to right--handed quarks. We delineate the constraints on these couplings arising from meson--anti-meson transitions and flavor changing weak decays. The sextet \Delta_{uu} mediates D^{0}-\bar{D}^{0} mixing via tree-level and box diagrams, and also mediates D --> K pi, pi pi decays. The sextets \Delta_{ud} and \Delta_{dd} mediate B_{d}^{0}-\bar{B}_{d}^{0}, B_{s}^{0}-\bar{B}_{s}^{0} and K^{0}-\bar{K}^{0} mixings as well as rare B and D meson decays. Our analysis shows that for coupling strengths of order 10^{-2}, the current experimental data requires the mass of these color sextets to exceed several TeV. These bounds are stronger than those obtained from direct LHC searches.