ATLAS New Small Wheel sTGC Pad Efficiency and Signal Strength

The New Small Wheel (NSW) is the latest major upgrade of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer and was installed during LHC Long Shutdown 2 between Runs 2 and 3. The NSW replaced the previous Small Wheels in the inner end-cap region and is composed of two technologies: MicroMegas and small-Strip Thin Gap Chambers (sTGC). The detector layers of the sTGC consist of wires centred between two cathode planes. One cathode plane is segmented into thin strips of constant width and the other into larger pads with variable sizes. From preliminary stand-alone tests and test beam results, the pads of the sTGC provide a coarse, fast trigger for the NSW and are able to distinguish muon signals in high-background environments.