ATLAS is a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Starting in Spring 2009, the ATLAS detector will search for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy. ATLAS will learn about the basic forces that have shaped our Universe since the beginning of time and that will determine its fate. Among the possible unknowns are the origin of mass, extra dimensions of space, microscopic black holes, and evidence for dark matter candidates in the Universe.

ATLAS Schedule 2008 and forward

10 Sept. -- First splashes of particles in the ATLAS detector as LHC circulates first beams (in both directions). No collision events were planned, but the particles in the detector were used to debug and setup the detector.

October 2008 - Fall 2009 --LHC is shutdown due to incident in the tunnel (described elsewhere). During parts of this period, ATLAS will use cosmic ray events to commission and tune the detector. Improvements to the detector will also be made during the shutdown.

Late 2009 -- Startup of LHC and first event collisions at a total energy of 0.9 TeV and later at 2.36 TeV (above the previous world record).

March 2010 -- Event collisions at a total energy of 7 TeV. This will lead to about 18 months of intensive data taking before the next shutdown. The next shutdown is expected to be about a year long. Following that shutdown it is expected that the total collision energy will be increased towards 14 TeV. First papers with early results may come in summer 2010.

Next 15-20 years -- Continued data taking with publication of results on an ongoing basis.

ATLAS is a virtual United Nations of 37 countries. In this troubled world, it is inspiring to see people from many lands working together in harmony. International collaboration has been essential to this success. These physicists come from more than 172 universities and laboratories and include 700 students. ATLAS is one of the largest collaborative efforts ever attempted in the physical sciences.

The protons will be accelerated in opposite directions in the Large Hadron Collider, an underground accelerator ring 27 kilometres in circumference at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Crashing together in the center of ATLAS, the particles will produce tiny fireballs of primordial energy. LHC will recreate the conditions at the birth of the Universe -- 30 million times a second. Relics of the early Universe not seen since the Universe cooled after the Big Bang 14 billion years ago will spring fleetingly to life again. The LHC is in effect a Big Bang Machine.

(Portions of this text are paraphrased from an article written by Dennis Overbye in the New York Times on May 15, 2007, with permission.)

ATLAS is about 45 meters long, more than 25 meters high, and weighs about 7,000 tons. It is about half as big as the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and weighs the same as the Eiffel Tower or a hundred 747 jets (empty).

If all the data from ATLAS would be recorded, this would fill 100,000 CDs per second. This would create a stack of CDs 450 feet high every second, which would reach to the moon and back twice each year. The data rate is also equivalent to 50 billion telephone calls at the same time. ATLAS actually only records a fraction of the data (those that may show signs of new physics) and that rate is equivalent to 27 CDs per minute.

We will be re-writing our children's science textbooks, chapter by chapter. This experiment is the culmination of a lifetime of effort, and the excitement is unlike anything we have experienced as scientists. It may well be a monument to mankind.

ATLAS brings experimental physics into new territory. Most exciting is the completely unknown surprise - new processes and particles that would change our understanding of energy and matter.

ATLAS is involving students at many levels - from high school through graduate school. Education is a major component of our work. This research is having a big impact in inspiring young people to study and appreciate science, and then go into many fields using their skills including science, education, industry, finance, and public policy.