Current Status of Top-Specific Variant Axion Model

The invisible variant axion model is very attractive as it is free from the domain wall problem. This model requires at least two Higgs doublets at the electroweak scale, with one Higgs doublet carrying a nonzero Peccei-Quinn (PQ) charge and the other being neutral under the PQ $\text{U}(1)$ symmetry. We consider a scenario where only the right-handed top quark is charged under the PQ symmetry and couples with the PQ-charged Higgs doublet. As a general prediction of this model, the top quark can decay to the observed standard model-like Higgs boson $h$ and the charm or up quark, $t\to hc\mathrm{/}u$, which recently exhibit slight excesses at LHC Run-I and Run-II. It will soon be testable at the LHC Run-II. If the rare top decay excess stays at the observed central value, we show that $\tan \beta \sim 1$ or smaller is preferred by the Higgs data. The chiral nature of the Higgs flavor-changing interaction is a distinctive feature, and can be tested using the angular distribution of the $t \to ch$ decays at the LHC.