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ATLAS is the largest general-purpose
particle detector In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing elementary particle, particles, such as t ...
experiment at the
Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...
(LHC), a
particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel electric charge, charged particles to very high speeds and energies to contain them in well-defined particle beam, beams. Small accelerators are used for fundamental ...
at
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...
(the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The experiment is designed to take advantage of the unprecedented energy available at the LHC and observe phenomena that involve highly massive
particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
which were not observable using earlier lower-
energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
accelerators. ATLAS was one of the two LHC experiments involved in the discovery of the
Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
in July 2012. It was also designed to search for evidence of
theories A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...
of
particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...
beyond the
Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
. The experiment is a collaboration involving 6,003 members, out of which 3,822 are
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
s (last update: June 26, 2022) from 243 institutions in 40 countries.


History


Particle accelerator growth

The first
cyclotron A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. Lawrence, Ernest O. ''Method and apparatus for the acceleration of ions'', filed: Januar ...
, an early type of particle accelerator, was built by Ernest O. Lawrence in 1931, with a radius of just a few centimetres and a particle
energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
of 1 megaelectronvolt (MeV). Since then, accelerators have grown enormously in the quest to produce new particles of greater and greater
mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
. As accelerators have grown, so too has the list of known particles that they might be used to investigate.


ATLAS Collaboration

The ATLAS Collaboration, the international group of physicists belonging to different universities and research centres who built and run the detector, was formed in 1992 when the proposed EAGLE (Experiment for Accurate Gamma, Lepton and Energy Measurements) and ASCOT (Apparatus with Super Conducting Toroids) collaborations merged their efforts to build a single, general-purpose particle detector for a new
particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel electric charge, charged particles to very high speeds and energies to contain them in well-defined particle beam, beams. Small accelerators are used for fundamental ...
, the
Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...
. At present, the ATLAS Collaboration involves 6,003 members, out of which 3,822 are
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
s (last update: June 26, 2022) from 257 institutions in 42 countries.


Detector design and construction

The design was a combination of two previous projects for LHC, EAGLE and ASCOT, and also benefitted from the detector research and development that had been done for the Superconducting Super Collider, a US project interrupted in 1993. The ATLAS experiment was proposed in its current form in 1994, and officially funded by the CERN member countries in 1995. Additional countries,
universities A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, and
laboratories A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which science, scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as s ...
have joined in subsequent years. Construction work began at individual institutions, with detector components then being shipped to CERN and assembled in the ATLAS experiment pit starting in 2003.


Detector operation

Construction was completed in 2008 and the experiment detected its first single
proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...
beam events on 10 September of that year. Data-taking was then interrupted for over a year due to an LHC magnet quench incident. On 23 November 2009, the first proton–proton collisions occurred at the LHC and were recorded by ATLAS, at a relatively low injection energy of 900 GeV in the
center of mass In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the d ...
of the collision. Since then, the LHC energy has been increasing: 1.8 TeV at the end of 2009, 7 TeV for the whole of 2010 and 2011, then 8 TeV in 2012. The first data-taking period performed between 2010 and 2012 is referred to as Run I. After a long shutdown (LS1) in 2013 and 2014, in 2015 ATLAS saw 13 TeV collisions. The second data-taking period, Run II, was completed, always at 13 TeV energy, at the end of 2018 with a recorded integrated
luminosity Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic energy per unit time, and is synonymous with the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electroma ...
of nearly 140 fb−1 (inverse femtobarn). A second long shutdown (LS2) in 2019-22 with upgrades to the ATLAS detector was followed by Run III, which started in July 2022.


Leadership

The ATLAS Collaboration is currently led by Spokesperson Stephane Willocq and Deputy Spokespersons Anna Sfyrla and Guillaume Unal. Former Spokespersons have been:


Experimental program

In the field of
particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...
, ATLAS studies different types of processes detected or detectable in energetic collisions at the
Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...
(LHC). For the processes already known, it is a matter of measuring more and more accurately the properties of known
particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
or finding quantitative confirmations of the
Standard model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
. Processes not observed so far would allow, if detected, to discover new
particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
or to have confirmation of physical theories that go beyond the
Standard model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
.


Standard Model

The
Standard model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
of
particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...
is the
theory A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...
describing three of the four known
fundamental force In physics, the fundamental interactions or fundamental forces are interactions in nature that appear not to be reducible to more basic interactions. There are four fundamental interactions known to exist: * gravity * electromagnetism * weak int ...
s (the
electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...
,
weak Weak may refer to: Songs * Weak (AJR song), "Weak" (AJR song), 2016 * Weak (Melanie C song), "Weak" (Melanie C song), 2011 * Weak (SWV song), "Weak" (SWV song), 1993 * Weak (Skunk Anansie song), "Weak" (Skunk Anansie song), 1995 * "Weak", a son ...
, and
strong Strong may refer to: Education * The Strong, an educational institution in Rochester, New York, United States * Strong Hall (Lawrence, Kansas), an administrative hall of the University of Kansas * Strong School, New Haven, Connecticut, United ...
interactions, while omitting
gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
) in the
universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...
, as well as classifying all known
elementary particle In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. The Standard Model presently recognizes seventeen distinct particles—twelve fermions and five bosons. As a c ...
s. It was developed in stages throughout the latter half of the 20th century, through the work of many scientists around the world, with the current formulation being finalized in the mid-1970s upon experimental confirmation of the existence of
quark A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nucleus, atomic nuclei ...
s. Since then, confirmation of the
top quark The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, (symbol: t) is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs field. This coupling is very close to unity; in the Standard ...
(1995), the
tau neutrino The tau neutrino or tauon neutrino is an elementary particle which has the symbol and zero electric charge. Together with the tau (particle), tau (), it forms the third generation (physics), generation of leptons, hence the name tau neutrino. It ...
(2000), and the
Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
(2012) have added further credence to the
Standard model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
. In addition, the Standard Model has predicted various properties of weak neutral currents and the
W and Z bosons In particle physics, the W and Z bosons are vector bosons that are together known as the weak bosons or more generally as the intermediate vector bosons. These elementary particles mediate the weak interaction; the respective symbols are , , an ...
with great accuracy. Although the
Standard model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
is believed to be theoretically self-consistent and has demonstrated huge successes in providing experimental predictions, it leaves some phenomena unexplained and falls short of being a complete theory of fundamental interactions. It does not fully explain
baryon asymmetry In physical cosmology, the baryon asymmetry problem, also known as the matter asymmetry problem or the matter–antimatter asymmetry problem, is the observed imbalance in baryonic matter (the type of matter experienced in everyday life) and an ...
, incorporate the full
theory of gravitation In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force be ...
Sean Carroll, PhD, Caltech, 2007, The Teaching Company, ''Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe'', Guidebook Part 2 page 59, Accessed 7 Oct. 2013, "...Standard Model of Particle Physics: The modern theory of elementary particles and their interactions ... It does not, strictly speaking, include gravity, although it's often convenient to include gravitons among the known particles of nature..." as described by
general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...
, or account for the accelerating expansion of the universe as possibly described by
dark energy In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a proposed form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. It also slows the rate of structure format ...
. The model does not contain any viable
dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
particle that possesses all of the required properties deduced from observational
cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...
. It also does not incorporate
neutrino oscillation Neutrino oscillation is a quantum mechanics, quantum mechanical phenomenon in which a neutrino created with a specific lepton lepton number, family number ("lepton flavor": electron, muon, or tau lepton, tau) can later be Quantum measurement, mea ...
s and their non-zero masses.


Precision measurements

With the important exception of the
Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
, detected by the ATLAS and the CMS experiments in 2012, all of the particles predicted by the
Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
had been observed by previous experiments. In this field, in addition to the discovery of the
Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
, the experimental work of ATLAS has focused on precision measurements, aimed at determining with ever greater accuracy the many physical parameters of theory. In particular for * the
Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
; *
W and Z bosons In particle physics, the W and Z bosons are vector bosons that are together known as the weak bosons or more generally as the intermediate vector bosons. These elementary particles mediate the weak interaction; the respective symbols are , , an ...
; * the
top Top most commonly refers to: * Top, a basic term of orientation, distinguished from bottom, front, back, and sides * Spinning top, a ubiquitous traditional toy * Top (clothing), clothing designed to be worn over the torso * Mountain top, a moun ...
and bottom quarks ATLAS measures: *
mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
es; * channels of production, decay and mean lifetimes; * interaction mechanisms and
coupling constant In physics, a coupling constant or gauge coupling parameter (or, more simply, a coupling), is a number that determines the strength of the force exerted in an interaction. Originally, the coupling constant related the force acting between tw ...
s for
electroweak In particle physics, the electroweak interaction or electroweak force is the unified description of two of the fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism (electromagnetic interaction) and the weak interaction. Although these two forc ...
and
strong interaction In nuclear physics and particle physics, the strong interaction, also called the strong force or strong nuclear force, is one of the four known fundamental interaction, fundamental interactions. It confines Quark, quarks into proton, protons, n ...
s. For example, the data collected by ATLAS made it possible in 2018 to measure the mass MeV">Electronvolt.html" ;"title="80,370±19) Electronvolt">MeVof the W boson">Electronvolt">MeV<_a>.html" ;"title="Electronvolt.html" ;"title="80,370±19) Electronvolt">MeV">Electronvolt.html" ;"title="80,370±19) Electronvolt">MeVof the W boson, one of the two mediators of the electroweak interaction">weak interaction In nuclear physics and particle physics, the weak interaction, weak force or the weak nuclear force, is one of the four known fundamental interactions, with the others being electromagnetism, the strong interaction, and gravitation. It is th ...
, with a measurement uncertainty of ±2.4Per mille, ‰.


Higgs boson

One of the most important goals of ATLAS was to investigate a missing piece of the Standard Model, the
Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
. The
Higgs mechanism In the Standard Model of particle physics, the Higgs mechanism is essential to explain the Mass generation, generation mechanism of the property "mass" for gauge bosons. Without the Higgs mechanism, all bosons (one of the two classes of particles ...
, which includes the Higgs boson, gives mass to elementary particles, leading to differences between the weak force and
electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...
by giving the
W and Z bosons In particle physics, the W and Z bosons are vector bosons that are together known as the weak bosons or more generally as the intermediate vector bosons. These elementary particles mediate the weak interaction; the respective symbols are , , an ...
mass while leaving the
photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...
massless. On July 4, 2012, ATLAS — together with CMS, its sister experiment at the LHC — reported evidence for the existence of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson at a confidence level of 5
sigma Sigma ( ; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; ) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as an operator ...
, with a mass around 125 GeV, or 133 times the proton mass. This new "Higgs-like" particle was detected by its decay into two
photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...
s (H\rightarrow\gamma\gamma ) and its decay to four
lepton In particle physics, a lepton is an elementary particle of half-integer spin (Spin (physics), spin ) that does not undergo strong interactions. Two main classes of leptons exist: electric charge, charged leptons (also known as the electron-li ...
s (H\rightarrow ZZ^*\rightarrow 4l and H\rightarrow WW^*\rightarrow e\nu\mu\nu). In March 2013, following the updated results from ATLAS and CMS, CERN announced that the newly discovered particle was indeed a Higgs boson. The experiments were also able to show that the properties of the particle as well as the ways it interacts with other particles were well-matched with those of a Higgs boson, which is expected to have spin 0 and positive parity. Analysis of more properties of the particle and data collected in 2015 and 2016 confirmed this further. In October 2013, two of the theoretical physicists who predicted the existence of the Standard Model Higgs boson,
Peter Higgs Peter Ware Higgs (29 May 1929 – 8 April 2024) was a British theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh,Griggs, Jessica (Summer 2008The Missing Piece ''Edit'' the University of Edinburgh Alumni Magazine, p. 17 and Nobel ...
and
François Englert François, Baron Englert (; born 6 November 1932) is a Belgian theoretical physicist and 2013 Nobel Prize laureate. Englert is professor emeritus at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where he is a member of the Service de Physique Thé ...
, were awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
.


Top quark properties

The properties of the
top quark The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, (symbol: t) is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs field. This coupling is very close to unity; in the Standard ...
, discovered at
Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle phys ...
in 1995, had been measured approximately. With much greater energy and greater collision rates, the LHC produces a tremendous number of top quarks, allowing ATLAS to make much more precise measurements of its mass and interactions with other particles. These measurements provide indirect information on the details of the Standard Model, with the possibility of revealing inconsistencies that point to new physics.


Beyond the Standard model

While the
Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
predicts that
quark A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nucleus, atomic nuclei ...
s,
lepton In particle physics, a lepton is an elementary particle of half-integer spin (Spin (physics), spin ) that does not undergo strong interactions. Two main classes of leptons exist: electric charge, charged leptons (also known as the electron-li ...
s and
neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...
s should exist, it does not explain why the
mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
es of these particles are so different (they differ by
orders of magnitude In a ratio scale based on powers of ten, the order of magnitude is a measure of the nearness of two figures. Two numbers are "within an order of magnitude" of each other if their ratio is between 1/10 and 10. In other words, the two numbers are wi ...
). Furthermore, the mass of the
neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...
s should be, according to the
Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
, exactly zero as that of the
photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...
. Instead, neutrinos have
mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
. In 1998 research results at detector
Super-Kamiokande Super-Kamiokande (abbreviation of Super-Kamioka Neutrino Detection Experiment, also abbreviated to Super-K or SK; ) is a neutrino detector, neutrino observatory located Kamioka Observatory, under Mount Ikeno near the city of Hida, Gifu, Hida, ...
determined that neutrinos can oscillate from one flavor to another, which dictates that they have a mass other than zero. For these and other reasons, many
particle physicists Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons, while the stud ...
believe it is possible that the
Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
will break down at energies at the teraelectronvolt (TeV) scale or higher. Most alternative theories, the Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) including
Supersymmetry Supersymmetry is a Theory, theoretical framework in physics that suggests the existence of a symmetry between Particle physics, particles with integer Spin (physics), spin (''bosons'') and particles with half-integer spin (''fermions''). It propo ...
(SUSY), predicts the existence of new particles with
mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
es greater than those of
Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
.


Supersymmetry

Most of the currently proposed theories predict new higher-mass particles, some of which may be light enough to be observed by ATLAS. Models of
supersymmetry Supersymmetry is a Theory, theoretical framework in physics that suggests the existence of a symmetry between Particle physics, particles with integer Spin (physics), spin (''bosons'') and particles with half-integer spin (''fermions''). It propo ...
involve new, highly massive particles. In many cases these decay into high-energy
quark A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nucleus, atomic nuclei ...
s and stable heavy particles that are very unlikely to interact with ordinary matter. The stable particles would escape the detector, leaving as a signal one or more high-energy quark jets and a large amount of "missing"
momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...
. Other hypothetical massive particles, like those in the
Kaluza–Klein theory In physics, Kaluza–Klein theory (KK theory) is a classical unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism built around the idea of a fifth dimension beyond the common 4D of space and time and considered an important precursor to ...
, might leave a similar signature. The data collected up to the end of LHC Run II do not show evidence of supersymmetric or unexpected particles, the research of which will continue in the data that will be collected from Run III onwards.


CP violation

The asymmetry between the behavior of matter and
antimatter In modern physics, antimatter is defined as matter composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding subatomic particle, particles in "ordinary" matter, and can be thought of as matter with reversed charge and parity, or go ...
, known as CP violation, is also being investigated. Recent experiments dedicated to measurements of CP violation, such as BaBar and Belle, have not detected sufficient CP violation in the Standard Model to explain the lack of detectable antimatter in the universe. It is possible that new models of physics will introduce additional CP violation, shedding light on this problem. Evidence supporting these models might either be detected directly by the production of new particles, or indirectly by measurements of the properties of B- and D-
meson In particle physics, a meson () is a type of hadronic subatomic particle composed of an equal number of quarks and antiquarks, usually one of each, bound together by the strong interaction. Because mesons are composed of quark subparticles, the ...
s.
LHCb The LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) experiment is a particle physics detector collecting data at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. LHCb specializes in the measurements of the parameters of CP violation in the interactions of b- and c-hadro ...
, an LHC experiment dedicated to B-mesons, is likely to be better suited to the latter.


Microscopic black holes

Some hypotheses, based on the ADD model, involve large extra dimensions and predict that micro black holes could be formed by the LHC. These would decay immediately by means of
Hawking radiation Hawking radiation is black-body radiation released outside a black hole's event horizon due to quantum effects according to a model developed by Stephen Hawking in 1974. The radiation was not predicted by previous models which assumed that onc ...
, producing all particles in the Standard Model in equal numbers and leaving an unequivocal signature in the ATLAS detector.


ATLAS detector

The ATLAS detector is 46 metres long, 25 metres in diameter, and weighs about 7,000 tonnes; it contains some 3,000 km of cable. At 27 km in
circumference In geometry, the circumference () is the perimeter of a circle or ellipse. The circumference is the arc length of the circle, as if it were opened up and straightened out to a line segment. More generally, the perimeter is the curve length arou ...
, the
Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...
(LHC) at
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...
collides two beams of protons together, with each proton carrying up to 6.8  TeV of energy – enough to produce particles with masses significantly greater than any particles currently known, if these particles exist. When the proton beams produced by the Large Hadron Collider interact in the center of the detector, a variety of different particles with a broad range of energies are produced.


General-purpose requirements

The ATLAS detector is designed to be general-purpose. Rather than focusing on a particular physical process, ATLAS is designed to measure the broadest possible range of signals. This is intended to ensure that whatever form any new physical processes or particles might take, ATLAS will be able to detect them and measure their properties. ATLAS is designed to detect these particles, namely their masses,
momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...
, energies, lifetime, charges, and
nuclear spin Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: * Nuclear engineering * Nuclear physics * Nuclear power * Nuclear reactor * Nuclear weapon * Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space * ...
s. Experiments at earlier colliders, such as the
Tevatron The Tevatron was a circular particle accelerator (active until 2011) in the United States, at the Fermilab, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (called ''Fermilab''), east of Batavia, Illinois, and was the highest energy particle collider unt ...
and Large Electron–Positron Collider, were also designed for general-purpose detection. However, the beam energy and extremely high rate of collisions require ATLAS to be significantly larger and more complex than previous experiments, presenting unique challenges of the Large Hadron Collider.


Layered design

In order to identify all particles produced at the interaction point where the particle beams collide, the detector is designed in layers made up of detectors of different types, each of which is designed to observe specific types of particles. The different traces that particles leave in each layer of the detector allow for effective particle identification and accurate measurements of energy and momentum. (The role of each layer in the detector is discussed
below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname * Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general * Fred Belo ...
.) As the energy of the particles produced by the accelerator increases, the detectors attached to it must grow to effectively measure and stop higher-energy particles. As of 2022, the ATLAS detector is the largest ever built at a particle collider.


Detector systems

The ATLAS detector consists of a series of ever-larger concentric cylinders around the interaction point where the proton beams from the LHC collide. Maintaining detector performance in the high radiation areas immediately surrounding the proton beams is a significant engineering challenge. The detector can be divided into four major systems: # Inner Detector; # Calorimeters; #
Muon A muon ( ; from the Greek letter mu (μ) used to represent it) is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 '' e'' and a spin of  ''ħ'', but with a much greater mass. It is classified as a ...
Spectrometer; # Magnet system. Each of these is in turn made of multiple layers. The detectors are complementary: the Inner Detector tracks particles precisely, the calorimeters measure the energy of easily stopped particles, and the muon system makes additional measurements of highly penetrating muons. The two magnet systems bend charged particles in the Inner Detector and the Muon Spectrometer, allowing their
electric charge Electric charge (symbol ''q'', sometimes ''Q'') is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric charge can be ''positive'' or ''negative''. Like charges repel each other and ...
s and momenta to be measured. The only established stable particles that cannot be detected directly are
neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...
s; their presence is inferred by measuring a momentum imbalance among detected particles. For this to work, the detector must be " hermetic", meaning it must detect all non-neutrinos produced, with no blind spots. The installation of all the above detector systems was finished in August 2008. The detectors collected millions of cosmic rays during the magnet repairs which took place between fall 2008 and fall 2009, prior to the first proton collisions. The detector operated with close to 100% efficiency and provided performance characteristics very close to its design values.


Inner Detector

The Inner Detector begins a few centimetres from the proton beam axis, extends to a radius of 1.2 metres, and is 6.2 metres in length along the beam pipe. Its basic function is to track charged particles by detecting their interaction with material at discrete points, revealing detailed information about the types of particles and their momentum. The Inner Detector has three parts, which are explained below. The
magnetic field A magnetic field (sometimes called B-field) is a physical field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular ...
surrounding the entire inner detector causes charged particles to curve; the direction of the curve reveals a particle's charge and the degree of curvature reveals its momentum. The starting points of the tracks yield useful information for identifying particles; for example, if a group of tracks seem to originate from a point other than the original proton–proton collision, this may be a sign that the particles came from the decay of a hadron with a
bottom quark The bottom quark, beauty quark, or b quark, is an elementary particle of the third generation. It is a heavy quark with a charge of −  ''e''. All quarks are described in a similar way by electroweak interaction and quantum chromodynamic ...
(see b-tagging).


Pixel Detector

The Pixel Detector, the innermost part of the detector, contains four concentric layers and three disks on each end-cap, with a total of 1,744 ''modules'', each measuring 2 centimetres by 6 centimetres. The detecting material is 250 μm thick
silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...
. Each module contains 16 readout chips and other electronic components. The smallest unit that can be read out is a pixel (50 by 400 micrometres); there are roughly 47,000 pixels per module. The minute pixel size is designed for extremely precise tracking very close to the interaction point. In total, the Pixel Detector has over 92 million readout channels, which is about 50% of the total readout channels of the whole detector. Having such a large count created a considerable design and engineering challenge. Another challenge was the
radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...
to which the Pixel Detector is exposed because of its proximity to the interaction point, requiring that all components be radiation hardened in order to continue operating after significant exposures.


Semi-Conductor Tracker

The Semi-Conductor Tracker (SCT) is the middle component of the inner detector. It is similar in concept and function to the Pixel Detector but with long, narrow strips rather than small pixels, making coverage of a larger area practical. Each strip measures 80 micrometres by 12 centimetres. The SCT is the most critical part of the inner detector for basic tracking in the plane perpendicular to the beam, since it measures particles over a much larger area than the Pixel Detector, with more sampled points and roughly equal (albeit one-dimensional) accuracy. It is composed of four double layers of silicon strips, and has 6.3 million readout channels and a total area of 61 square meters.


Transition Radiation Tracker

The Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT), the outermost component of the inner detector, is a combination of a straw tracker and a transition radiation detector. The detecting elements are drift tubes (straws), each four millimetres in diameter and up to 144 centimetres long. The uncertainty of track position measurements (position resolution) is about 200 micrometres. This is not as precise as those for the other two detectors, but it was necessary to reduce the cost of covering a larger volume and to have transition radiation detection capability. Each straw is filled with gas that becomes ionized when a charged particle passes through. The straws are held at about −1,500 V, driving the negative ions to a fine wire down the centre of each straw, producing a current pulse (signal) in the wire. The wires with signals create a pattern of 'hit' straws that allow the path of the particle to be determined. Between the straws, materials with widely varying indices of refraction cause ultra-relativistic charged particles to produce transition radiation and leave much stronger signals in some straws.
Xenon Xenon is a chemical element; it has symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...
and
argon Argon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as abu ...
gas is used to increase the number of straws with strong signals. Since the amount of transition radiation is greatest for highly relativistic particles (those with a speed very near the
speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...
), and because particles of a particular energy have a higher speed the lighter they are, particle paths with many very strong signals can be identified as belonging to the lightest charged particles:
electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...
s and their antiparticles,
positron The positron or antielectron is the particle with an electric charge of +1''elementary charge, e'', a Spin (physics), spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same Electron rest mass, mass as an electron. It is the antiparticle (antimatt ...
s. The TRT has about 298,000 straws in total.


Calorimeters

The calorimeters are situated outside the solenoidal
magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...
that surrounds the Inner Detector. Their purpose is to measure the energy from particles by absorbing it. There are two basic calorimeter systems: an inner electromagnetic calorimeter and an outer hadronic calorimeter. Both are ''sampling calorimeters''; that is, they absorb energy in high-density metal and periodically sample the shape of the resulting
particle shower In particle physics, a shower is a cascade of secondary particles produced as the result of a high-energy particle interacting with dense matter. The incoming particle interacts, producing multiple new particles with lesser energy; each of these t ...
, inferring the energy of the original particle from this measurement.


Electromagnetic calorimeter

The electromagnetic (EM) calorimeter absorbs energy from particles that interact electromagnetically, which include charged particles and photons. It has high precision, both in the amount of energy absorbed and in the precise location of the energy deposited. The angle between the particle's trajectory and the detector's beam axis (or more precisely the pseudorapidity) and its angle within the perpendicular plane are both measured to within roughly 0.025 
radian The radian, denoted by the symbol rad, is the unit of angle in the International System of Units (SI) and is the standard unit of angular measure used in many areas of mathematics. It is defined such that one radian is the angle subtended at ...
s. The barrel EM calorimeter has accordion shaped electrodes and the energy-absorbing materials are
lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...
and
stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...
, with liquid
argon Argon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as abu ...
as the sampling material, and a cryostat is required around the EM calorimeter to keep it sufficiently cool.


Hadron calorimeter

The
hadron In particle physics, a hadron is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong nuclear force. Pronounced , the name is derived . They are analogous to molecules, which are held together by the electri ...
calorimeter absorbs energy from particles that pass through the EM calorimeter, but do interact via the
strong force In nuclear physics and particle physics, the strong interaction, also called the strong force or strong nuclear force, is one of the four known fundamental interactions. It confines quarks into protons, neutrons, and other hadron particles, an ...
; these particles are primarily hadrons. It is less precise, both in energy magnitude and in the localization (within about 0.1 radians only). The energy-absorbing material is steel, with scintillating tiles that sample the energy deposited. Many of the features of the calorimeter are chosen for their cost-effectiveness; the instrument is large and comprises a huge amount of construction material: the main part of the calorimeter – the tile calorimeter – is 8 metres in diameter and covers 12 metres along the beam axis. The far-forward sections of the hadronic calorimeter are contained within the forward EM calorimeter's cryostat, and use liquid argon as well, while copper and tungsten are used as absorbers.


Muon Spectrometer

The
Muon A muon ( ; from the Greek letter mu (μ) used to represent it) is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 '' e'' and a spin of  ''ħ'', but with a much greater mass. It is classified as a ...
Spectrometer A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure Spectrum, spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomeno ...
is an extremely large tracking system, consisting of three parts: # A magnetic field provided by three toroidal magnets; # A set of 1200 chambers measuring with high spatial precision the tracks of the outgoing muons; # A set of triggering chambers with accurate time-resolution. The extent of this sub-detector starts at a radius of 4.25 m close to the calorimeters out to the full radius of the detector (11 m). Its tremendous size is required to accurately measure the momentum of muons, which first go through all the other elements of the detector before reaching the muon spectrometer. It was designed to measure, standalone, the momentum of 100 GeV muons with 3% accuracy and of 1 TeV muons with 10% accuracy. It was vital to go to the lengths of putting together such a large piece of equipment because a number of interesting physical processes can only be observed if one or more muons are detected, and because the total energy of particles in an event could not be measured if the muons were ignored. It functions similarly to the Inner Detector, with muons curving so that their momentum can be measured, albeit with a different
magnetic field A magnetic field (sometimes called B-field) is a physical field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular ...
configuration, lower spatial precision, and a much larger volume. It also serves the function of simply identifying muons – very few particles of other types are expected to pass through the calorimeters and subsequently leave signals in the Muon Spectrometer. It has roughly one million readout channels, and its layers of detectors have a total area of 12,000 square meters.


Magnet System

The ATLAS detector uses two large superconducting magnet systems to bend the trajectory of charged particles, so that their momenta can be measured. This bending is due to the
Lorentz force In electromagnetism, the Lorentz force is the force exerted on a charged particle by electric and magnetic fields. It determines how charged particles move in electromagnetic environments and underlies many physical phenomena, from the operation ...
, whose modulus is proportional to the
electric charge Electric charge (symbol ''q'', sometimes ''Q'') is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric charge can be ''positive'' or ''negative''. Like charges repel each other and ...
q of the particle, to its speed v and to the intensity B of the magnetic field: :F = q \, v \, B. Since all particles produced in the LHC's
proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...
collisions are traveling at very close to the speed of light in vacuum (v \simeq c), the
Lorentz force In electromagnetism, the Lorentz force is the force exerted on a charged particle by electric and magnetic fields. It determines how charged particles move in electromagnetic environments and underlies many physical phenomena, from the operation ...
is about the same for all the particles with same
electric charge Electric charge (symbol ''q'', sometimes ''Q'') is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric charge can be ''positive'' or ''negative''. Like charges repel each other and ...
q: :F \simeq q \, c \, B. The radius of curvature r due to the
Lorentz force In electromagnetism, the Lorentz force is the force exerted on a charged particle by electric and magnetic fields. It determines how charged particles move in electromagnetic environments and underlies many physical phenomena, from the operation ...
is equal to :r = \frac. where p = \gamma \, m \, v is the relativistic
momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...
of the particle. As a result, high-momentum particles curve very little (large r), while low-momentum particles curve significantly (small r). The amount of
curvature In mathematics, curvature is any of several strongly related concepts in geometry that intuitively measure the amount by which a curve deviates from being a straight line or by which a surface deviates from being a plane. If a curve or su ...
can be quantified and the particle
momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...
can be determined from this value.


Solenoid Magnet

The inner
solenoid upright=1.20, An illustration of a solenoid upright=1.20, Magnetic field created by a seven-loop solenoid (cross-sectional view) described using field lines A solenoid () is a type of electromagnet formed by a helix, helical coil of wire whos ...
produces a two tesla magnetic field surrounding the Inner Detector. This high magnetic field allows even very energetic particles to curve enough for their momentum to be determined, and its nearly uniform direction and strength allow measurements to be made very precisely. Particles with momenta below roughly 400 MeV will be curved so strongly that they will loop repeatedly in the field and most likely not be measured; however, this energy is very small compared to the several TeV of energy released in each proton collision.


Toroid Magnets

The outer
toroid In mathematics, a toroid is a surface of revolution with a hole in the middle. The axis of revolution passes through the hole and so does not intersect the surface. For example, when a rectangle is rotated around an axis parallel to one of its ...
al magnetic field is produced by eight very large air-core
superconducting Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ordinary metallic conductor, whose resistance decreases g ...
barrel loops and two smaller end-caps air toroidal magnets, for a total of 24 barrel loops all situated outside the calorimeters and within the muon system. This magnetic field extends in an area 26 metres long and 20 metres in diameter, and it stores 1.6  gigajoules of energy. Its magnetic field is not uniform, because a solenoid magnet of sufficient size would be prohibitively expensive to build. It varies between 2 and 8 Teslameters.


Forward detectors

The ATLAS detector is complemented by a set of four sub-detectors in the forward region to measure particles at very small angles. # LUCID (LUminosity Cherenkov Integrating Detector)
is the first of these detectors designed to measure luminosity, and located in the ATLAS cavern at 17 m from the interaction point between the two muon endcaps; # ZDC (Zero Degree Calorimeter)
is designed to measure neutral particles on-axis to the beam, and located at 140 m from the IP in the LHC tunnel where the two beams are split back into separate beam pipes; # AFP (Atlas Forward Proton)
is designed to tag diffractive events, and located at 204 m and 217 m; # ALFA (Absolute Luminosity For ATLAS)
is designed to measure elastic proton scattering located at 240 m just before the bending magnets of the LHC arc.


Data systems


Data generation

Earlier particle detector read-out and event detection systems were based on parallel shared
buses A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
such as
VMEbus VMEbus (Versa Module Eurocard bus) is a computer bus standard physically based on Eurocard sizes. History In 1979, during development of the Motorola 68000 CPU, one of their engineers, Jack Kister, decided to set about creating a standar ...
or FASTBUS. Since such a bus architecture cannot keep up with the data requirements of the LHC detectors, all the ATLAS data acquisition systems rely on high-speed point-to-point links and switching networks. Even with advanced
electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...
for data reading and storage, the ATLAS detector generates too much raw data to read out or store everything: about 25 MB per raw event, multiplied by 40 million beam crossings per second (40
MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...
) in the center of the detector. This produces a total of 1
petabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
of raw data per second. By avoiding to write empty segments of each event (zero suppression), which do not contain physical information, the average size of an event is reduced to 1.6 MB, for a total of 64
terabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
of data per second.


Trigger system

The trigger system uses fast event reconstruction to identify, in real time, the most interesting events to retain for detailed analysis. In the second data-taking period of the LHC, Run-2, there were two distinct trigger levels: # The Level 1 trigger (L1), implemented in custom hardware at the detector site. The decision to save or reject an event data is made in less than 2.5 μs. It uses reduced granularity information from the calorimeters and the muon spectrometer, and reduces the rate of events in the read-out from 40 
MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...
to 100  kHz. The L1 rejection factor in therefore equal to 400. # The High Level Trigger trigger (HLT), implemented in software, uses a computer battery consisting of approximately 40,000 
CPUs A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary Processor (computing), processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes Instruction (computing), instructions ...
. In order to decide which of the 100,000 events per second coming from L1 to save, specific analyses of each collision are carried out in 200 μs. The HLT uses limited regions of the detector, so-called Regions of Interest (RoI), to be reconstructed with the full detector granularity, including tracking, and allows matching of energy deposits to tracks. The HLT rejection factor is 100: after this step, the rate of events is reduced from 100 to 1  kHz. The remaining data, corresponding to about 1,000 events per second, are stored for further analyses.


Analysis process

ATLAS permanently records more than 10
petabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
s of data per year. Offline
event reconstruction In a particle detector experiment, event reconstruction is the process of interpreting the electronic signals produced by the detector to determine the original particles that passed through, their momenta, directions, and the primary vertex of ...
is performed on all permanently stored events, turning the pattern of signals from the detector into physics objects, such as jets,
photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...
s, and
lepton In particle physics, a lepton is an elementary particle of half-integer spin (Spin (physics), spin ) that does not undergo strong interactions. Two main classes of leptons exist: electric charge, charged leptons (also known as the electron-li ...
s.
Grid computing Grid computing is the use of widely distributed computer resources to reach a common goal. A computing grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve many files. Grid computing is distinguished fro ...
is being used extensively for event reconstruction, allowing the parallel use of university and laboratory computer networks throughout the world for the CPU-intensive task of reducing large quantities of raw data into a form suitable for physics analysis. The
software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
for these tasks has been under development for many years, and refinements are ongoing, even after data collection has begun. Individuals and groups within the collaboration are continuously writing their own
code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...
to perform further analyses of these objects, searching the patterns of detected particles for particular physical models or hypothetical particles. This activity requires processing 25
petabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
s of data every week.


Trivia

The researcher pictured for scale in the famous ATLAS detector image is Roger Ruber, a researcher from Uppsala University, Sweden. Ruber, one of the researchers responsible for the ATLAS detector's central cryostat magnet, was inspecting the magnets in the LHC tunnel at the same time Maximilien Brice, the photographer, was setting up to photograph the ATLAS detector. Brice asked Ruber to stand at the base of the detector to illustrate the scale of the ATLAS detector. This was revealed by Maximilien Brice, and confirmed by Roger Ruber during interviews in 2020 with Rebecca Smethurst of the University of Oxford.


References


Further reading


ATLAS Technical Proposal.
CERN: The Atlas Experiment. Retrieved on 2007-04-10 *

".
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...
: The Atlas Experiment. Retrieved on 2007-04-10 *
The Atlas Experiment
Monica Lynn Dunford and Peter Jenni,
Scholarpedia ''Scholarpedia'' is an English-language wiki-based online encyclopedia with features commonly associated with Open access (publishing), open-access online academic journals, which aims to have quality content in science and medicine. ''Scholarpe ...
9(10):32147. doi:10.4249/scholarpedia.32147


External links


Official ATLAS Public Webpage
at CERN ''(The "award winning ATLAS movie" is a very good general introduction!)''

at CERN ''(Lots of technical and logistical information)''


Time lapse video of the assembly

ATLAS section from US/LHC Website


* ttp://www.eurekalert.org/features/doe/2004-03/dnal-tsg032604.php United States Department of Energy article on ATLAS
Large Hadron Collider Project Director Dr Lyn Evans CBE on the engineering behind the ATLAS experiment, ''Ingenia'' magazine, June 2008
* (Full design documentation)
LEGO model of ATLAS
by an ATLAS-scientist at the
Niels Bohr Institute The Niels Bohr Institute () is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics, and biophysics. Overview The institute was foun ...
* * *Record fo
ATLAS
experiment on
INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1 ...
{{CERN CERN experiments Large Hadron Collider Particle experiments