Probing flavor-changing interactions in photon-photon collisions

Abstract

We examine the subprocess $\ensuremath{\gamma}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}t\overline{c}+\overline{t}c$ at electron-positron colliders in the two-Higgs-doublet model with flavor-changing scalar couplings, where all the one-loop contributions are considered, and the results are applicable to the whole mass range of the weakly coupled Higgs bosons. Because of the heavy top quark mass, this process is important in probing the flavor-changing top-charm-scalar vertex and could be detectable at the Next Linear Collider, if the values of the parameters are favorable. The results show that this process is more promising than the direct ${e}^{+}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ process for discovering flavor-changing scalar interactions.