The Resistive Plate Chambers of the ATLAS experiment: performance studies

Abstract

ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) is one of the four experiments ready for p-p collisions scheduled in autumn 2009 at the LHC at CERN. It is a general purpose experiment, with a physics program that spans from the search of the Higgs Boson to the evidence of physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM). Events with final state muons are a signature of the most promising physics channels, e.g. the Standard Model Higgs Boson decaying into four muons (H → 4μ). For this reason a completely independent in-air Muon Spectrometer with a toroidal magnetic field for muon track measurement has been realized to trigger and measure the momentum of high energy muons. Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) provide the first-level muon trigger and the measurement of the coordinate in the non-bending direction in the barrel region of the Muon Spectrometer. The installation in the experimental hall of RPCs has been completed and extensive tests of their performance have been performed with cosmic-rays muons. An overview of the ATLAS experiment, focusing on the results of the studies on the RPCs performance will be presented.