Sensitivity of ATLAS to FCNC single top quark production

Abstract

The anomalous production of single top quarks via flavour-changing neutral currents (FCNCs), u(c)+g -> t, is studied using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Detector simulation is done using the fast simulation package ATLFAST. A number of important systematic effects have been addressed. Based on a cut-based analysis, we shows that, with 10 fb-1, ATLAS can observe such top FCNC interactions with 5 sigma significance if the anomalous coupling strengths are k_ug/Lambda=k_cg/Lambda >= 0.0120 $^{+0.0014}_{-0.0012}$ (sys.) TeV-1, or equivalently Br(t->ug)+Br(t->cg) >= 2.64 $^{+0.63}_{-0.54}$ (sys.) x 10^{-4}$. In terms of production cross section, such a discovery requires at least 13.7 pb of anomalous single top quark production. With this level of sensitivity, ATLAS will be able to test some models of new physics