Non-resonant new physics in top pair production at hadron colliders

We use top quark pair production as a probe of top-philic non-resonant new physics. Following a low energy effective field theory approach, we calculate several key observables in top quark pair production at hadron colliders (e. g., total cross section, t (t) over bar invariant mass distribution, forward-backward asymmetry, spin correlations) including the interference of the Standard Model with dimension-six operators. We determine the LHC reach in probing new physics after having taken into account the Tevatron constraints. In particular, we show that the gluon fusion process gg -> t (t) over bar which remains largely unconstrained at the Tevatron is affected by only one top-philic dimension-six operator, the chromo-magnetic moment of the top quark. This operator can be further constrained by the LHC data as soon as a precision of about 20% is reached for the total t (t) over bar cross-section. While our approach is general and model-independent, it is particularly relevant to models of Higgs and top compositeness, which we consider in detail, also in connection with t (t) over bart (t) over bar and t (t) over barb (b) over bar production.