Impact of Energy and Luminosity upgrades at LHC on the Physics program of ATLAS

Abstract

The impact on the physics capabilities of the ATLAS detector of possible LHC upgrades is discussed. As a benchmark, an increase in the luminosity by a factor of ten is considered. For comparison, a doubling of the LHC energy is also explored. Both upgrades significantly enhance the physics capabilities of ATLAS. As measured in terms of the mass reach for new particles, the energy upgrade is more powerful. However, in cases where the effect of an upgrade is to increase the precision of measurements as a result of the larger data samples, the luminosity upgrade can be at least as powerful. The pile-up of minimum bias events at higher luminosity could limit the physics performance of ATLAS in areas where tagging of forward jets is needed.