Fast simulation of the trigger system of the ATLAS detector at LHC

The trigger system of the ATLAS detector aims to maximize the physics coverage and to be open to new and possibly unforeseen physics signatures. It is a multi-level system, composed from a hardware trigger at level-1, followed by the high-level-trigger (level-2 and event-filter). In order to understand its performance, to optimize it and to reduce its total cost, the trigger system requires a detailed simulation which is time- and resource-consuming. An alternative to the full detector simulation is a so-called 'fast simulation' which starts the analysis from particle level and replaces the full detector simulation and the detailed particle tracking with parametrized distributions obtained from the full simulation and/or a simplified detector geometry. The fast simulation offers a less precise description of trigger performance, but it is faster and less resource-consuming. (author)