Flavour-Changing Neutral Scalar Interactions of the Top Quark

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors present a comprehensive review of FCNH interactions, including their detection at colliders and their theoretical predictions in different new physics models. The manuscript involves many technical details. They seem to be trivial but are very important. In addition, the manuscript is well-written. So, I suggest its publication in the Universe.  

Author Response

Dear Referee,

We would like to thank you for your review and comments!

Thanks,

The Authors

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a nice and comprehensive review. My main comment is that to make it a bit more accessible for graduate students in the field, I think some clarification is needed to draw a better distinction between FCNC searches that test couplings at production and those that do so at decay. Most of this could be achieved with a couple of Feynman diagrams.

Detailed comments (mostly editorial)

L15 "SM theory of weak interactions" should be "electroweak interactions"

L44 "probability to observe" this is not a probability, it's a branching fraction.

L51 "that is shorter" -> "which is shorter" (sorry, but this one can't go either way)

L110 "clean experimental environment" -> "clean experimental signature"

L111 This is a place where a Feynman diagram is really needed. It's not completely clear what process is being discussed. "up to one isolated lepton" implies single-top, but it doesn't say so anywhere.

L127 "allows to observe" -> "allows the observation of"

L149 Another place that Feynman diagrams would help clarify.

L154 "two same-sign and three leptons" is unclear. Does this mean three leptons, two of which are same-sign? That's true of any three leptons. Same flavor as well?

L154 delete "the" at the end of the line

L155 "from the processes" -> "from processes"

L171-172 How are the prompt and non-prompt leptons distinguished?

L200 "handles in suppressing" -> "handles for suppressing"

L252 "interpretation" -> "interpretations"

L253 "approach to provide" -> "approach to providing"

L259 "high energy dimension operators" ?? Do you mean "dimensional"?

L282 "The first possibility..." It's not clear to me what this has to do with top-Higgs.

L345 "allows to escape" -> "allows a way to escape"

L369 Does the existence of the H decay mode imply the existence of the t>ch decay?

L399 "There is" -> "There are"

L429 "allows to reach" -> "allows reaching"

L446-7 "defying the predictions of various BSM models..." The predictions have nothing to do with the sensitivity. Are you trying to say that the predictions have been ruled out? 

L449 "most promising" -> "the most promising", but I'm not sure in what sense any BSM scenarios are "most promising". Please explain.

Author Response

Dear Referee,

We would like to thank you for your review and comments. Please find our answers in the attached document.

Thanks,

The Authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf