Explorations of the Top Quark Forward-Backward Asymmetry at the Tevatron

TL;DR

This paper investigates the top quark forward-backward asymmetry discrepancy at the Tevatron, proposing new scalar particles as an explanation and discussing their potential discovery at the LHC.

Contribution

It introduces a novel explanation involving t-channel exchange of color sextet or triplet scalars for the asymmetry discrepancy.

Findings

Scalar exchange can account for the asymmetry without affecting total cross section.

Such particles are detectable through kinematic analysis of t-tbar+jets at the LHC.

The proposed model remains consistent with existing measurements.

Abstract

We consider the recent measurement of the top quark forward-backward asymmetry at the Fermilab Tevatron, which shows a discrepancy of slightly more than 2$\sigma$ compared to the SM prediction. We find that $t$-channel exchange of a color sextet or triplet scalar particle can explain the measurement, while leaving the cross section for $t \bar{t}$ production within measured uncertainties. Such particles have good discovery prospects by study of the kinematic structure of $t \bar{t}$+jets at the LHC.