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Resistive Plate Chambers and Gaseous Detector Activities in the Brazilian High Energy Physics Community

Sandro Fonseca de Souza, Gilvan Augusto Alves, Mapse Barroso, Helio Nogima, Felipe Silva, Joao Pedro Gomes Pinheiro, Katherine Maslova Defante, Dalmo Dalto, Mauricio Thiel, Luis Mendes

TL;DR

This work surveys the Brazilian nuclear and high-energy physics community's activities on gaseous detectors, emphasizing resistive plate chambers used in the CMS experiment and upgrades for HL-LHC, as well as local infrastructure and spin-off projects. It details RPC design choices, performance metrics, and maintenance strategies, including the development of iRPCs and eco-friendly gas mixtures to meet environmental and rate requirements. The document also describes MARTA, an outdoor RPC-based muon-tagging system for the Pierre Auger Observatory, and outlines national laboratory developments for gas handling, mixing, and aging studies, highlighting CERN collaborations and industry partnerships. The global significance lies in demonstrating Brazil's sustained contribution to RPC technology, its technology transfer to imaging and security applications, and its readiness to lead future detector R&D efforts under evolving environmental and performance constraints.

Abstract

This document presents an overview of the activities of Brazilian groups on gaseous detectors, with emphasis on resistive plate chambers (RPCs) for the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and related applications. It summarises the design, performance, maintenance and upgrade of the CMS RPC system, including the installation of improved RPCs for the HL-LHC era and the development of alternative, lower-GWP gas mixtures. It also describes local laboratory infrastructures in Brazil for RPC assembly, testing and gas studies, as well as spin-off projects such as the MARTA cosmic-ray detector and applications in medical imaging and muography. It is intended as a living reference to be periodically updated, documenting the contributions of the Brazilian community to RPC technology and its applications.

Resistive Plate Chambers and Gaseous Detector Activities in the Brazilian High Energy Physics Community

TL;DR

This work surveys the Brazilian nuclear and high-energy physics community's activities on gaseous detectors, emphasizing resistive plate chambers used in the CMS experiment and upgrades for HL-LHC, as well as local infrastructure and spin-off projects. It details RPC design choices, performance metrics, and maintenance strategies, including the development of iRPCs and eco-friendly gas mixtures to meet environmental and rate requirements. The document also describes MARTA, an outdoor RPC-based muon-tagging system for the Pierre Auger Observatory, and outlines national laboratory developments for gas handling, mixing, and aging studies, highlighting CERN collaborations and industry partnerships. The global significance lies in demonstrating Brazil's sustained contribution to RPC technology, its technology transfer to imaging and security applications, and its readiness to lead future detector R&D efforts under evolving environmental and performance constraints.

Abstract

This document presents an overview of the activities of Brazilian groups on gaseous detectors, with emphasis on resistive plate chambers (RPCs) for the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and related applications. It summarises the design, performance, maintenance and upgrade of the CMS RPC system, including the installation of improved RPCs for the HL-LHC era and the development of alternative, lower-GWP gas mixtures. It also describes local laboratory infrastructures in Brazil for RPC assembly, testing and gas studies, as well as spin-off projects such as the MARTA cosmic-ray detector and applications in medical imaging and muography. It is intended as a living reference to be periodically updated, documenting the contributions of the Brazilian community to RPC technology and its applications.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 19 sections, 14 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Gaseous Detectors: Introduction
  2. CMS Experiment: Resistive Plate Chambers
  3. Introduction
  4. Description and operation of the RPCs installed in the CMS Experiment
  5. Performance
  6. RPC maintenance
  7. Improved RPC chambers for HL-LHC
  8. Alternative gas mixtures for Resistive Plate Chambers -- RPC
  9. Brazilian person-power involved in the activities in the CMS-Muon-RPC project
  10. Developments and possibilities of local activities among Brazilian institutions
  11. RPC Applications in Marta Experiment
  12. Introduction
  13. The MARTA detector module
  14. MARTA station
  15. MARTA engineering array Design
  16. ...and 4 more sections

Figures (14)

  • Figure 1: RPC chamber installed on station RE+4 of the CMS endcap. Source: rpc_picture.
  • Figure 2: $R\text{--}\phi$ (left) and $R\text{--}Z$ (right) projections of the barrel muon system.
  • Figure 3: $R\text{--}Z$ projection of the endcap muon system on the positive $z$ side. The same configuration is repeated for the 36 $\phi$ sectors.
  • Figure 4: RPC overall efficiency distribution comparison for the barrel (left) and endcap (right) regions, obtained using 2018, 2022, 2023 and 2024 proton-proton collisions data.
  • Figure 5: CMS RPC barrel chamber fully extracted from yoke during the new leak repair campaign in YETS 24/25.
  • ...and 9 more figures