The result of a search for the direct pair production of top squarks, the supersymmetric partner of the top-quark, in final states with one isolated electron or muon, jets, and missing transverse momentum is reported.
The search uses data from $pp$ collisions recorded at the LHC with the ATLAS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$.
Dedicated analysis for the Higgsino LSP model is performed considering small mass splitting between electroweakinos and the realistic branching ratio of a top squark.
No significant excess over the Standard Model predictions is observed.
Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level in the Higgsino LSP model are set.
The top squark mass is excluded up to 810 GeV for 2 GeV mass splitting between the chargino and the lightest neutralino.
The results are also reinterpreted to set exclusion limits in a Bino-Higgsino mixed LSP model.