Searching for new physics in top-quark events with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and parallel processing in the ATLAS trigger.

The top-quark is the heaviest fundamental particle observed to date. It plays a crucial role in many beyond the Standard Model (SM) theories and new physics could appear as subtle deviations from the SM predictions. The high energy and luminosity of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) result in a large production cross-section for top-quark pair production and hence offers the possibility for precision measurements of the top quark. The first aim of this project is to use the run-2 and run-3 data collected by the ATLAS experiment to make precision measurements of the top quark. The student will apply novel techniques to reduce the systematic uncertainties, which typically limit the precision of many measurements. The measurements will be interpreted using Effective Field Theory and any deviation from the SM would be a milestone in the field.

The successfully collection of data with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC relies on the operation of the trigger system. The development of modern computing architectures to have many processing cores and less memory per core means that in the future it will be essential to be able to run highly parallel algorithms in the ATLAS trigger system. The second aim of the project is to explore the potential of such algorithms in the muon trigger for the upgraded ATLAS trigger system that will be deployed for the high luminosity LHC upgrade.

The project is aligned with STFCs goal for "World Class Research" and fits within the STFC theme for data-intensive science. The research will be done in collaboration with other members of the ATLAS collaboration.