Track and vertex reconstruction in the ATLAS experiment

The track and vertex reconstruction algorithms of the ATLAS Inner Detector have demonstrated excellent performance in the early data from the LHC. However, the rapidly increasing number of interactions per bunch crossing introduces new challenges both in computational aspects and physics performance. The combination of both silicon and gas based tracking detectors provides high precision measurements of charged particle momenta and impact parameters with high efficiency and low fake rate. Vertex reconstruction is used to identify with high efficiency the hard scattering process and to measure the number of minimum-bias (pile-up) interactions. Both aspects are crucial for many physics analyses. The performance of track and vertex reconstruction achieved in the 2011 data-taking period and perspectives for the 2012 data-taking, where improved algorithms will be used, are presented. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.