General-Purpose Detectors for the Large Hadron Collider

This review describes the two general-purpose experiments, ATLAS and CMS, that have been designed to study proton-proton collisions at 14 TeV, the highest center-of-mass energy ever achieved, at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. These experiments have undergone a long research and development and construction period since 1989 and are now in the middle of a strenuous and exciting integration, installation, and commissioning period. After a brief introduction to the physics context and prospects as perceived today, this review presents an overview of both projects in terms of their global design characteristics. The main features and challenges related to the tracking systems, to the calorimetry, and to the muon spectrometers are described. The various aspects of the trigger and data acquisition systems and of the computing and software are also discussed broadly. Finally, we conclude with the lessons learned during the design and construction years.