Charge asymmetry of heavy quarks at hadron colliders

A sizable difference in the differential production cross section of top quarks and top antiquarks, 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 Fermilab 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 CERN LHC the asymmetry can be studied by selecting appropriately chosen kinematical regions. Furthermore, a slight preference at LHC for a centrally produced top antiquark is predicted, with top quarks more abundant at large positive and negative rapidities.