Abstract: We perform a complete one-loop computation of the two-body flavour-changing top decays t --> ch and t --> cV (V = gamma, Z), within the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model. We evaluate the impact of the model parameters on the associated branching ratios, taking into account constraints from flavour data and measurements of the Higgs properties. Assuming that the 125 GeV Higgs corresponds to the lightest CP-even scalar of the CP-conserving aligned two-Higgs-doublet model, we find that the rates for such flavour-changing top decays lie below the expected sensitivity of the future high-luminosity phase of the LHC. Measurements of the Higgs signal strength in the di-photon channel are found to play an important role in limiting the size of the t --> ch decay rate when the charged scalar of the model is light.

Abstract: The measured branching fractions of B-mesons into leptonic final states derived by the LHCb, Belle and BaBar collaborations hint towards the breakdown of lepton flavour universality. In this work we take at face value the so-called R-D(()*()) observables that are defined as the ratios of neutral B-meson charged-current decays into a D-(*())-meson, a charged lepton and a neutrino final state in the tau and light lepton channels. A well-studied and simple solution to this charged current anomaly is to introduce a scalar leptoquark S-1 that couples to the second and third generation of fermions. We investigate how S-1 can also serve as a mediator between the Standard Model and a dark sector. We study this scenario in detail and estimate the constraints arising from collider searches for leptoquarks, collider searches for missing energy signals, direct detection experiments and the dark matter relic abundance. We stress that the production of a pair of leptoquarks that decays into different final states (i.e. the commonly called “mixed” channels) provides critical information for identifying the underlying dynamics, and we exemplify this by studying the t tau b nu and the resonant S-1 plus missing energy channels. We find that direct detection data provides non-negligible constraints on the leptoquark coupling to the dark sector, which in turn affects the relic abundance. We also show that the correct relic abundance can not only arise via standard freeze-out, but also through conversion-driven freeze-out. We illustrate the rich phenomenology of the model with a few selected benchmark points, providing a broad stroke of the interesting connection between lepton flavour universality violation and dark matter.

Abstract: We present a strategy how to match the full set of components of the heavy-light axial and vector currents in Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET), up to and including 1/m (h) -corrections, to QCD. While the ultimate goal is to apply these matching conditions non-perturbatively, in this study we first have implemented them at tree-level, in order to find good choices of the matching observables with small contributions. They can later be employed in the non-perturbative matching procedure which is a crucial part of precision HQET computations of semileptonic decay form factors in lattice QCD.