Constraints on four-fermion interactions from the tt¯ charge asymmetry at hadron colliders

The charge asymmetry in top quark production at hadron colliders is sensitive to beyond-the-Standard-Model four-fermion interactions. In this study we compare the sensitivity of $$t\bar{t}$$ cross-section and charge asymmetry measurements to effective operators describing four-fermion interactions and study the limits on the validity of this approach. A fit to a combination of Tevatron and LHC measurements yields stringent limits on the linear combinations $$C_1$$ and $$C_2$$ of the four-fermion effective operators.