New strongly coupled sector at the Tevatron and the LHC

Abstract

We examine the possibility that a new strong interaction is accessible to the Tevatron and the LHC. In an effective theory approach, we consider a scenario with a new color-octet interaction with strong couplings to the top quark, as well as the presence of a strongly coupled fourth generation which could be responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. We apply several constraints, including the ones from flavor physics. We study the phenomenology of the resulting parameter space at the Tevatron, focusing on the forward-backward asymmetry in top pair production, as well as in the production of the fourth-generation quarks. We show that if the excess in the top production asymmetry is indeed the result of this new interaction, the Tevatron could see the first hints of the strongly coupled fourth-generation quarks. Finally, we show that the LHC with $\sqrt{s}=7\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ and $1\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ integrated luminosity should observe the production of fourth-generation quarks at a level at least 1 order of magnitude above the QCD prediction for the production of these states.