The Trigger of the ATLAS Experiment

TL;DR

This paper reviews the ATLAS experiment's multi-level trigger system designed to handle high event rates at the LHC, discussing its design, implementation, and initial performance results.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the ATLAS trigger system's design principles, implementation details, and early performance studies, offering insights into its operation and future strategies.

Findings

Initial trigger performance studies show effective event-rate reduction.

The trigger system's design effectively manages high data volumes at the LHC.

Future event-selection strategies are outlined for improved performance.

Abstract

With the high bunch-crossing and interaction rates and potentially large event sizes the experiments at the LHC challenge data acquisition and trigger systems. Within the ATLAS experiment, a multi-level trigger system based on hardware and software is employed to cope with the task of event-rate reduction. This review article gives an overview of the trigger of the ATLAS experiment highlighting the design principles and the implementation of the system and provides references to more detailed information. In addition, first trigger- performance studies and an outlook on the ATLAS event-selection strategy are presented.