Search for flavor-changing neutral-current couplings between the top quark and the Z boson with proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for flavor-changing neutral-current couplings between a top quark, an up or charm quark, and a Z boson is presented, using proton–proton collision data at ffiffi s p ¼ 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analyzed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. The search targets both single-top-quark events produced as gq → tZ (with q ¼ u, c) and top-quark-pair events, with one top quark decaying through the t → Zq channel. The analysis considers events with three leptons (electrons or muons), a b-tagged jet, possible additional jets, and missing transverse momentum. The data are found to be consistent with the background-only hypothesis and 95% confidence-level limits on the t → Zq branching ratios, assuming only tensor operators of the Standard Model effective field theory framework contribute to the tZq vertices. These are 6.2 × 10−5 (13 × 10−5) for t → Zu (t → Zc) for a left-handed tZq coupling, and 6.6 × 10−5 (12 × 10−5) in the case of a right-handed coupling. These results are interpreted as 95% CL upper limits on the strength of the corresponding couplings, yielding limits for Formula Presented and Formula Presented (Formula Presented and Formula Presented) of 0.15 (0.16), and limits for Formula Presented and Formula Presented (Formula Presented and Formula Presented) of 0.22 (0.21), assuming a new-physics energy scale Formula Presented of 1 TeV.