ATLAS

ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) is a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) that is searching 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. The experiment is designed to take advantage of the unprecedented energy available at the LHC and observe phenomena that involve highly massive particles, which were not observable using earlier lower-energy accelerators. It is hoped that it will shed light on new theories of particle physics beyond the Standard Model. Among the possible unknowns are extra dimensions of space, unification of fundamental forces, and evidence for dark matter candidates in the Universe. Following the discovery of the Higgs boson, further data will allow in-depth investigation of the boson's properties.