Adaptive multitrack fitting Original Research Article

We address the problem of estimating the parameters of very close or overlapping tracks. In order to achieve optimal performance the estimation process has to be carried out concurrently with the task of assigning the observations to the track candidates. We present a new method that is based on the Deterministic Annealing Filter (DAF) and implements a global competition. The method is studied on simulated tracks in the ATLAS Transition Radiation Tracker, both without and with mirror hits and at various noise levels. We show that the new method is superior to a sequential application of the DAF to the track candidates, and also superior to the Elastic Arms algorithm (EAA), in particular at high noise levels.