Forward-backward asymmetry in top quark-antiquark production

Abstract

We present a measurement of forward-backward asymmetry in top quark-antiquark production in proton-antiproton collisions in the final state containing a lepton and at least four jets. Using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb^-1, collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, we measure the tt̅ forward-backward asymmetry to be (9.2±3.7)% at the reconstruction level. When corrected for detector acceptance and resolution, the asymmetry is found to be (19.6±6.5)%. We also measure a corrected asymmetry based on the lepton from a top quark decay, found to be (15.2± 4.0)%. The results are compared to predictions based on the next-to-leading-order QCD generator mc@nlo. The sensitivity of the measured and predicted asymmetries to the modeling of gluon radiation is discussed.