Forward-backward asymmetry in tt production from flavor symmetries

We show that the forward-backward asymmetry in top quark pair production can be enhanced by fields that transform nontrivially under the flavor group and satisfy minimal flavor violation, while at the same time the constraints from associated effects on the dσ(tt)/dM(tt) distribution, dijet resonance searches, same-sign top-pair production, and other phenomenology are satisfied. We work out two examples in detail: one where a scalar color antisextet field that is also an antisextet of SU(3)(U) enhances the forward-backward asymmetry and one where the enhancement arises from a vector color octet field that is also an octet of SU(3)(U).