Abstract:
A search for the decay of a top quark via a flavor-changing neutral current is performed. Top quark-antiquark pair events with one top quark decaying to a bottom quark and a W boson and the other top quark decaying to a charm or up quark and a Higgs boson are explored, where the Higgs boson decays to two photons. Data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb$^{-1}$ in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 8 TeV collected by the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are analyzed. No significant excess is observed. The observed upper limit on the branching fraction of $\mathrm{ t \rightarrow c(u)H }$ is determined to be 0.47(0.42)% at the 95% confidence level while the expected upper limit on the branching fraction of $\mathrm{ t \rightarrow c(u)H }$ is 0.71(0.65)% at the 95% confidence level.
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