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. If the masses of top and bottom squarks are below 1 TeV, the direct pair production cross-section is sufficient to produce observable signatures at the ATLAS detector and to probe various theoretical scenarios with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV. The most recent ATLAS results from searches for direct stop and sbottom pair production are presented in these proceedings. No evidence of deviations from the Standard Model expectation has been observed, and the limits have been set on the masses of the top and bottom squarks.