Diffraction and Forward Physics in ATLAS: results and perspectives

The present and future potential of ATLAS for diffraction and forward physics is presented. As recent results the rapidity gap cross section and elastic and total pp cross sections are reported. The phase 1 upgrade project AFP is presented and it is shown how it will complement the ALFA acceptance for diffractive physics in measurements taken with beta*=90m. Moreover, the AFP detector will guarantee good acceptance on diffractive events also with normal running conditions optics allowing not only to improve the ATLAS detector performances, but also being fundamental for potential discoveries (for instance, extra dimensions) in case the high luminosity program will be feasible.