Abstract
A search for charged-lepton-flavor violating μτqt (q = u, c) ) interactions is presented, considering both top-quark production and decay. The data analyzed correspond to 140 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis targets events containing two muons with the same electric charge, a hadronically decaying $\tau$ -lepton and at least one jet, with exactly one b-tagged jet, produced by a μτqt interaction. Agreement with the Standard Model expectation within 1.6 standard deviations is observed, and limits are set at the 95% confidence level (CL) on the charged-lepton-flavor violation branching ratio of $\mathcal{B}$(t → μ$\tau$q) < 8.7 x 10-7. An effective field theory interpretation is performed yielding 95% CL limits on Wilson coefficients, dependent on the flavor of the associated light quark and the Lorentz structure of the coupling. These range from |c$^{3(2313)}_{lequ}$|Λ2 < 0.10 TeV-2 for μ$\tau$ut to |c$^{1(2323)}_{lequ}$| /Λ2< 1.8 TeV-2 for μ$\tau$ct. An additional interpretation is performed for scalar leptoquark production inducing charged-lepton-flavor violation, with fixed intergenerational couplings. Upper limits on leptoquark coupling strengths are set at the 95% CL, ranging from $\lambda$ LQ = 1.3 to $\lambda$LQ =3.7 for leptoquark masses between 0.5 and 2.0 TeV.