This thesis represents one of the most comprehensive and in-depth studies of the use of Lorentz-boosted hadronic final state systems in the search for signals of Supersymmetry conducted to date at the Large Hadron Collider. A thorough assessment is performed of the observables that provide enhanced sensitivity to new physics signals otherwise hidden under an enormous background of top quark pairs produced by Standard Model processes. This is complemented by an ingenious analysis optimization procedure that allowed for extending the reach of this analysis by hundreds of GeV in mass of these hypothetical new particles. Lastly, the combination of both deep, thoughtful physics analysis with the development of high-speed electronics for identifying and selecting these same objects is not only unique, but also revolutionary. The Global Feature Extraction system that the author played a critical role in bringing to fruition represents the first dedicated hardware device for selecting these Lorentz-boosted hadronic systems in real-time using state-of-the-art processing chips and embedded systems.

This thesis discusses searches for electroweakly produced supersymmetric partners of the gauge and the Higgs bosons (gauginos and higgsinos) decaying to multiple leptons, using pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV. The thesis presents an in-depth study of multiple searches, as well as the first 13 TeV cross section measurement for the dominant background in these searches, WZ production. Two searches were performed using 36.1/fb of data: the gaugino search, which makes use of a novel kinematic variable, and the higgsino search, which produced the first higgsino limits at the LHC. A search using 139/fb of data makes use of a new technique developed in this thesis to cross check an excess of data above the background expectation in a search using a Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction technique. None of the searches showed a significant excess of data, and limits were expanded with respect to previous results. These searches will benefit from the addition of luminosity during HL-LHC; however, the current detector will not be able to withstand the increase in radiation. Electronics for the detector upgrade are tested and irradiated to ensure their performance.

After an extensive overview of the Standard Model and of the theory and phenomenology of Supersymmetry, this book describes the recent development of the ATLAS Particle Flow algorithm, a hadronic reconstruction technique aiming at enhancing the sensitivity of the experiment to new physics through the combination of the information from different ATLAS sub-detectors. The first ever ATLAS strong SUSY search exploiting this technique is also described, reporting the results and exclusion limits obtained using the complete proton-proton collision dataset recorded by the ATLAS experiment during the second Run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Abstract: Supersymmetry (SUSY) is one of the most studied models to extend the Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics beyond the electroweak scale. In many supersymmetric models, the lightest supersymmetric particle is stable and can be a suitable candidate for dark matter.\\ This dissertation summarises a search for supersymmetric phenomena produced via the strong or the electroweak interaction leading to final states with two leptons (electrons or muons) of the same electric charge, or three leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum. While the same-sign or three leptons signature is present in many SUSY scenarios, SM processes leading to such events have very small production rates. Therefore, this analysis benefits from a small SM background in the signal regions leading to a good sensitivity especially in SUSY scenarios with compressed mass spectra or in which the R-parity is not conserved. The search was performed with cut-and-count analyses exploiting the full dataset recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during the years 2015 and 2016, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectations is observed. The results are interpreted in several simplified supersymmetric models featuring R-parity conservation or R-parity violation, extending the exclusion limits from previous searches.\\ Since no sign of SUSY particles has been observed, this dissertation presents prospects for a search for compressed electroweakino production. This supersymmetric scenario is particularly challenging for LHC experiments since the products of the decay chain have low energies and are therefore difficult to detect. Results are obtained with a parameterised simulation of the ATLAS detector performances at a centre-of-mass energy of 14 TeV and for an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$.\\

The project reported here was a search for new super symmetric particles in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. It has produced some of the world’s best exclusion limits on such new particles. Furthermore, dedicated simulation studies and data analyses have also yielded essential input to the upgrade activities of the CMS collaboration, both for the Phase-1 pixel detector upgrade and for the R&D studies in pursuit of a Phase-2 end cap calorimeter upgrade.