Charge asymmetry of heavy quarks at hadron colliders

Abstract

A sizeable difference in the differential production cross section of top and antitop quarks, respectively, is predicted for hadronically produced heavy quarks. It is of order $\alpha_s$ and arises from the interference between charge odd and even amplitudes respectively. For the TEVATRON it amounts up to 15\% for the differential distribution in suitable chosen kinematical regions. The resulting integrated forward-backward asymmetry of 4--5\% could be measured in the next round of experiments. At the LHC the asymmetry can be studied by selecting appropriately chosen kinematical regions. Furthermore, a slight preference at LHC for centrally produced antitop is predicted, with top quarks more abundant at large positive and negative rapidities.