Searches for direct pair production of third generation squarks with the ATLAS detector

Naturalness arguments for weak-scale supersymmetry favour supersymmetric partners of the third generation quarks with masses not too far from those of their Standard Model counterparts. This article presents recent results of the ATLAS experiment searches for direct top and bottom squark pair production at the LHC. No evidence of deviations from the Standard Model prediction has been found, and limits have been placed on the masses of the top and bottom squarks for different assumptions on their decay mode and on the mass of the lightest supersymmetric particle.