The flavor of a little Higgs with T-parity

Abstract

We analyze flavor constraints in the littlest Higgs model with T-parity. In particular, we focus on neutral meson mixing in the K, B, and D systems due to one loop contributions from T-parity odd fermions and gauge bosons. We calculate the short distance contributions to mixing for a general choice of T-odd fermion Yukawa couplings. We find that for a generic choice of textures, a TeV scale GIM suppression is necessary to avoid large contributions. If order one mixing angles are allowed in the extended flavor structure, the mass spectrum is severely constrained, and must be degenerate at the 1-5% level. However, there are still regions of parameter space where only a loose degeneracy is necessary to avoid constraints. We also consider the B(s) system, and identify a scenario in which the mixing can be significantly enhanced beyond the standard model prediction while still satisfying bounds on the other mixing observables. We present both analytical and numerical results as functions of the T-odd fermion mass eigenvalues.