Axion models with generation-dependent Peccei-Quinn charges can lead to flavor-changing neutral currents, thus motivating QCD axion searches at precision flavor experiments. We rigorously derive limits on the most general effective flavor-violating couplings from current measurements and assess their discovery potential. For two-body decays, we use available experimental data to derive limits on q → q 0 a decay rates for all flavor transitions. Axion contributions to neutral-meson mixing are calculated in a systematic way using chiral perturbation theory and operator product expansion. We also discuss in detail baryonic decays and three-body meson decays, which can lead to the best search strategies for some of the couplings. For instance, a strong limit on the Λ → na transition can be derived from the supernova SN 1987A. In the near future, dedicated searches for q → q 0 a decays at ongoing experiments could potentially test Peccei-Quinn breaking scales up to 10 12 GeV at NA62 or KOTO and up to 10 9 GeV at Belle II or BES III.
We present a systematic survey of possible short-distance new-physics effects in (semi)leptonic charged- and neutral-current charmed meson decays. Using the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) to analyze the most relevant experimental data at low and high energies, we demonstrate a striking complementarity between charm decays and high invariant mass lepton tails at the LHC. Interestingly enough, high-pT Drell-Yan data offer competitive constraints on most new physics scenarios. Furthermore, the full set of correlated constraints from K, π and τ decays imposed by SU(2)L gauge invariance is considered. The bounds from D(s) decays, high-pT lepton tails and SU(2)L relations chart the space of the SMEFT affecting semi(leptonic) charm flavor transitions.
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