Monte Carlo event generators & the top quark forward-backward asymmetry

Abstract

The leading-order accurate description of $t\bar t$ production, as usually employed in standard Monte Carlo event generators, gives no rise to the generation of a forward-backward asymmetry, AFB. Yet, non-negligible - differential as well as inclusive - asymmetries may be produced if coherent parton showering is used in the hadroproduction of top quark pairs. In this contribution we summarize the outcome of our study [1] of this effect. We present a short comparison of different parton shower implementations and briefly comment on the phenomenology of the colour coherence effect at the Tevatron. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2013.