Search for flavour-changing neutral current interactions of the top quark and the Higgs boson in events with a pair of $τ$-leptons in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
A search for flavour-changing neutral current (FCNC) $tqH$ interactions involving a top quark, another up-type quark ($q = u, c$), and a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson decaying into a $τ$-lepton pair ($H$ → $τ$ + $τ$ - ) is presented. The search is based on a dataset of pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb -1 recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Two processes are considered: single top quark FCNC production in association with a Higgs boson ($pp$ → $tH$), and top quark pair production in which one of top quarks decays into $Wb$ and the other decays into $qH$ through the FCNC interactions. The search selects events with two hadronically decaying $τ$-lepton candidates ($τ$ had ) or at least one $τ$ had with an additional lepton ($e, µ$), as well as multiple jets. Event kinematics is used to separate signal from the background through a multivariate discriminant. A slight excess of data is observed with a significance of 2.3$σ$ above the expected SM background, and 95% CL upper limits on the $t → qH$ branching ratios are derived. The observed (expected) 95% CL upper limits set on the $t → cH$ and $t → uH$ branching ratios are 9.4 × 10 -4 (${4.8}^{+2.2}_{-1.4}$ × 10 -4 ) and 6.9 × 10 -4 (${3.5}^{+1.5}_{-1.0}$ × 10 -4 ), respectively. The corresponding combined observed (expected) upper limits on the dimension-6 operator Wilson coefficients in the effective $tqH$ couplings are $C$ $c$φ < 1.35 (0.97) and $C$ $u$φ < 1.16 (0.82).