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

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$σ$ 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.

14 pages, 10 figures, 1 table