All evidence indicates that new physics, and answers to some of the most profound questions of our time, lie at energies around 1 TeV. To look for this new physics, the next research instruments in Europe's particle physics armory are the LHC experiments.

The LHC is an accelerator which brings protons into head-on collisions at higher energies than ever achieved before. This will allow physicists to penetrate still further into the structure of matter and recreate the conditions prevailing in the early universe, just after the "Big Bang". The LHC is built astride the Franco-Swiss border west of Geneva, at the foot of the Jura mountains, in front of the Alps.

The ATLAS detector is a multi-purpose detector designed for physics studies at the LHC. Its goal is to explore the fundamental nature of matter and the basic forces that shape our universe. The detector is optimized simultaneously for a long range of known and hypothetical processes, but on the other hand is well prepared for the discovery of completely new phenomena.

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