This book reports a search for theoretically natural supersymmetry (SUSY) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The data collected with the ATLAS detector in 2012 corresponding to 20 /fb of an integrated luminosity have been analyzed for stop pair production in proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the scenario of the higgsino-like neutralino. The author focuses on stop decaying into a bottom quark and chargino. In the scenario of the higgsino-like neutralino, the mass difference between charginos and neutralinos (Δm) is expected to be small, and observable final-state particles are likely to have low-momentum (soft). The author develops a dedicated analysis with a soft lepton as a probe of particles from chargino decay, which suppresses the large amount of backgrounds. As a result of the analysis, no significant SUSY signal is observed. The 95% confidence-level exclusion limits are set to masses of stop and neutralino assuming Δm = 20 GeV. The region with ΔM (the mass difference between stop and neutralino) 70 GeV is excluded for the first time at stop mass of less than 210 GeV. The author also excludes the signals with ΔM 120 GeV up to 600 GeV of stop mass with neutralino mass of less than 280 GeV. The author clearly shows very few remaining parameter spaces for light stop (e.g., topology of stop decay is extremely similar to the SM top quark) by combining his results and previous ATLAS analyses. His results provide a strong constraint to searches for new physics in the future.

This PhD thesis documents two of the highest-profile searches for supersymmetry performed at the ATLAS experiment using up to 80/fb of proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV delivered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during its Run 2 (2015-2018). The signals of interest feature a high multiplicity of jets originating from the hadronisation of b-quarks and large missing transverse momentum, which constitutes one of the most promising final state signatures for discovery of new phenomena at the LHC. The first search is focused on the strong production of a pair of gluinos, with each gluino decaying into a neutralino and a top-antitop-quark pair or a bottom-antibottom-quark pair. The second search targets the pair production of higgsinos, with each higgsino decaying into a gravitino and a Higgs boson, which in turn is required to decay into a bottom-antibottom-quark pair. Both searches employ state-of-the-art experimental techniques and analysis strategies at the LHC, resulting in some of the most restrictive bounds available to date on the masses of the gluino,neutralino, and higgsino in the context of the models explored.

We report results of three searches for scalar top quark. Two of the searches look for direct production of scalar top quark followed by the decay of the scalar quark to charm quark and neutralino or bottom and chargino. The third search looks for top quark decaying to scalar top and neutralino followed by the decay of scalar top to bottom quark and neutralino. We find no evidence for the presence of scalar top quark in any of the searches. Therefore, depending on the search we set limits on the production cross-section, BR(t --> {tilde t}1 + {tilde {chi}}°1), or m{sub {tilde t}} vs. m{sub {tilde {chi}}°1}.

Results are reported from a search for the top squark $ \tilde{t}_1 $, the lighter of the two supersymmetric partners of the top quark. The data sample corresponds to 19.7 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 8 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The search targets $ \tilde{t}_1 \to \mathrm{b} \tilde{\chi}^{\pm}_1$ and $ \tilde{t}_1 \to \mathrm{t}^{(*)} \tilde{\chi}^0_1$ decay modes, where $\tilde{\chi}^{\pm}_1$ and $\tilde{\chi}^0_1$ are the lightest chargino and neutralino, respectively. The reconstructed final state consists of jets, b jets, missing transverse energy, and either one or two leptons. Leading backgrounds are determined from data. No significant excess in data is observed above the expectation from standard model processes. The results exclude a region of the two-dimensional plane of possible $ \tilde{t}_1 $ and $\tilde{\chi}^0_1 $ masses. The highest excluded $ \tilde{t}_1 $ and $ \tilde{\chi}^0_1$ masses are about 700 GeV and 250 GeV, respectively.

The sensitivity of this search to models with a top squark decaying to jets and a neutralino through a on-shell top quark extends to 775 GeV in top squark mass and to 650 GeV in models with a top squark decaying through an intermediate chargino.

This book reports on the search for a new heavy particle, the Vector-Like Top quark (VLT), in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The signal process is the pair production of VLT decaying into a Higgs boson and top quark (TT→Ht+X, X=Ht, Wb, Zt). The signal events result in top–antitop quarks final states with additional heavy flavour jets. The book summarises the analysis of the data collected with the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. In order to better differentiate between signals and backgrounds, exclusive taggers of top quark and Higgs boson were developed and optimised for VLT signals. These efforts improved the sensitivity by roughly 30%, compared to the previous analysis. The analysis outcomes yield the strongest constraints on parameter space in various BSM theoretical models. In addition, the book addresses detector operation and the evaluation of tracking performance. These efforts are essential to properly collecting dense events and improving the accuracy of the reconstructed objects that are used for particle identification. As such, they represent a valuable contribution to data analysis in extremely dense environments.