R&D for an autonomous RPC station in air shower detector arrays

Abstract

Resistive plate chambers (RPCs) are planar gaseous detectors that combine low cost with a time resolution around 50 ps for minimum ionizing particles, making them a very competitive solution for large area timing applications in accelerator physics. The RPCs capabilities could be used to measure new shower observables, or to improve resolution of actual observables, namely the sensitivity to the details of the depth development of extensive air showers from muon time distributions. RPCs have been already used in cosmic ray detectors, although there is not much experience on outdoor operation in small isolated stations under hard environmental conditions and little maintenance. Our objective is to investigate whether RPC detectors can operate under harsh field conditions i.e. low energy budget, low cost per unit area, and mechanical toughness. In this paper we present progress on the design of a first prototype.