The LHC collides lead ions to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang under laboratory conditions. The data obtained will allow physicists to study a state of matter known as quark-gluon plasma, which is believed to have existed soon after the Big Bang.
The ATLAS detector 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. ATLAS will record sets of measurements on the particles created in collisions. More than 2,900 scientists from 172 institutes in 37 countries work on the ATLAS experiment.
The LHC experiment will help us to understand why we live in a Universe that appears to be composed almost entirely of matter, but no antimatter. It specialises in investigating the slight differences between matter and antimatter.