A search for leptoquarks with the ATLAS detector and hardware tracking at the High-Luminosity LHC

Abstract: This thesis presents a search for pair-production of scalar leptoquarks, decaying into third-generation particles, using proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and recorded by the ATLAS detector. It also presents the development of a hardware track trigger for the Phase-II upgrade of the ATLAS experiment.The search for pair-production of leptoquarks is performed using data collected by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The total integrated luminosity of this data set amounts to 36.1 fb−1 . The search sensitivity is optimized for up-type leptoquarks where both leptoquarks decay to a b-quark and a τ -lepton. However, it also proves sensitive to down-type leptoquarks where both leptoquarks decay to a top-quark and a τ -lepton. The data is found to be compatible with the Standard Model, so exclusion limits are set on the leptoquark mass.After the High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC, the ATLAS detector faces a 5–7 times increase in the number of simultaneous proton-proton collisions. To benefit from this increase in luminosity, the ATLAS detector has to maintain low trigger thresholds while keeping manageable trigger rates. A crucial part of the solution is the development of Hardware Tracking for the Trigger (HTT). The HTT first selects hit clusters in the inner tracking detector using associative memories and uses the selected clusters to perform linearized track-fits. This thesis presents the HTT system with focus on using the Hough transform as an alternative to associative memories to select clusters in the inner detector. The performance of the Hough transform is studied and a hardware implementation is discussed.