CERN goes online sometime this year. When it does I will be watching with great anticipation. The recent discoveries in physics relating to how the universe began has become profoundly interesting. From parallel universes to 11 dimensions. Man I wish my math skills were better! We do live in interesting times!
A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS
ATLAS is one of two general-purpose detectors at the LHC. It will investigate a wide range of physics, including the search for the Higgs boson, extra dimensions, and particles that could make up dark matter.
With the same goals in physics as CMS, ATLAS will record similar sets of measurements on the particles created in the collisions – their paths, energies, and their identities. However, the two experiments have adopted radically different technical solutions and designs for their detectors' magnet systems.
The main feature of the ATLAS detector is its enormous doughnut-shaped magnet system. This consists of eight 25‑m long superconducting magnet coils, arranged to form a cylinder around the beam pipe through the centre of the detector. During operation, the magnetic field is contained within the central cylindrical space defined by the coils.
More than 1700 scientists from 159 institutes in 37 countries work on the ATLAS experiment (March 2006).
- Size: 46 m long, 25 m high and 25 m wide. The ATLAS detector is the largest volume particle detector ever constructed.
- Weight: 7000 tonnes
- Design: barrel plus end caps
- Location: Meyrin, Switzerland.