Discovery potential of R-hadrons with the ATLAS detector

The production of exotic heavy hadronic particles arise in several models for physics beyond the Standard Model. A study of the detection possibilities of new heavy hadron states with the ATLAS detector is presented. The focus is on R-hadrons, which are stable hadronized gluinos, predicted by certain supersymmetric models. Interactions and signatures of single R-hadrons are studied with the ATLAS simulation and reconstruction framework and issues concerning triggering on R-hadron events are addressed. The ATLAS fast simulation framework has been extended to include parameterizations for R-hadrons. Based on topological and kinematic variables only, the discovery potential of the ATLAS detector for R-hadron events produced in pp->g~g~, is studied for masses below 2 TeV/c^2. R-hadrons with masses as predicted by standard SUSY scenarios would be discovered already in the very early stages of the running of the LHC. The discovery reach of heavy gluinos, predicted by for example split supersymmetry models, extends up to at least 1.8 \tevcc for three years running of the LHC at low luminosity.