Quark-flavor-changing Higgs decays from a universal extra dimension

Abstract

Kaluza–Klein fields characterizing, from a four-dimensional viewpoint, the presence of compact universal extra dimensions would alter low-energy observables through effects determined by some compactification scale, [Formula: see text], since the one-loop level, thus being particularly relevant for physical phenomena forbidden at tree level by the Standard Model. This paper explores, for the case of one universal extra dimension, such new-physics contributions to Higgs decays [Formula: see text], into pairs of quarks with different flavors, a sort of decay process which, in the Standard Model, strictly occurs at the loop level. Finite results, decoupling as [Formula: see text], are calculated. Approximate short expressions, valid for large compactification scales, are provided. We estimate that Kaluza–Klein contributions lie below predictions from the Standard Model, being about 2 to 3 orders of magnitude smaller for compactification scales within [Formula: see text].