  Searches for flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) processes in top-quark
production and decays by the ATLAS Collaboration are presented. Data collected
from $pp$ collisions at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV during
2011, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.05/fb, are used. In a
first analysis single top-quarks produced via FCNC are searched for. Candidate
events with a semileptonic top-quark decay signature are classified as signal
or background-like events by using several kinematic variables as input to a
neural network. No signal is observed in the neural network output distribution
and a Bayesian upper limit is placed on the production cross-section. The
observed upper limit is converted using a model-independent approach into upper
limits on the coupling strengths k_{ugt}/Lambda < 6.9x10^{-3}/TeV and
k_{cgt}/Lambda < 1.6x10^{-2}/TeV, where Lambda is the new physics scale, and on
the branching fractions BF(t-->ug) < 5.7x10^{-5} and BF(t-->cg) < 2.7x10^{-4}.
A second search is performed for top-quark pair-production events, with one top
quark decaying through the t-->Zq FCNC (q=u,c) channel, and the other through
the Standard Model dominant mode t-->Wb. Only the decays of the Z boson to
charged leptons and leptonic W-boson decays are considered as signal. No
evidence for an FCNC signal is found and thus an upper limit on the t-->Zq
branching ratio of BF(t-->Zq)<0.73% is set at the 95% confidence level.

High Energy Physics - Experiment