Quark-flavor-changing Higgs decays from a universal extra dimension

Kaluza-Klein fields characterizing, from a four-dimensional viewpoint, the presence of compact universal extra dimensions would alter low-energy observables through effects determined by some compactification scale, $R^{-1}$, since the one-loop level, thus being particularly relevant for physical phenomena forbidden at tree level by the Standard Model. The present paper explores, for the case of one universal extra dimension, such new-physics contributions to Higgs decays $h^{(0)}\to q^{(0)}_\alpha q^{(0)}_\beta$, into pairs of quarks with different flavors, a sort of decay process which, in the Standard Model, strictly occurs at the loop level. Finite results, decoupling as $R^{-1}\to \infty$, are calculated. Approximate short expressions, valid for large compactification scales, are provided. We estimate that Kaluza-Klein contributions lie below predictions from the Standard Model, being about 2 to 3 orders of magnitude smaller for compactification scales within $1.4\,{\rm TeV}<R^{-1}<10\,{\rm TeV}$.