Heavy Ion Physics with the ATLAS detector

Recent results from RHIC experiments suggest that a hot QCD matter, known as quark gluon plasma (QGP), may be formed in Gold+Gold collisions at a center mass energy of 200 GeV per colliding pair. The LHC is planning to accelerate heavy nuclei such as Lead at energies of 2.75 TeV/nucleon. At these energies it will be possible to produce a even higher temperature QCD matter. In addition, hard scattering cross sections will increase significantly and they could be used as probes of the QCD matter. RHIC experiments indicate that hard scattered partons produced inside the QGP radiate gluons and therefore modifying the jet properties such as energy angular distribution. The ATLAS detector with its large acceptance is an ideal place to detect and study jets from nucleus-nucleus collisions. Initial simulation studies show most detectors will perform well in a high multiplicity environment, including inner detector tracking. Jet reconstruction is possible with an energy resolution close to the high luminosity proton-proton run. In this paper we present a summary or our initial round of simulations studies of the ATLAS detector in the heavy ion environment.