Performance, operation and detector studies with the ATLAS Resistive Plate Chambers

Resistive Plate Chambers provide the barrel region of the ATLAS detector with an independent muon trigger and a two-coordinate measurement. The chambers, arranged in three concentric double layers, are operated in a strong magnetic toroidal field and cover a surface area of about 4000 m². During 2011 the LHC has provided proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV in the center-of-mass frame with a steady increase in instantaneous luminosity, summing up to about 5 fb⁻¹. The operational experience for this running period is presented along with studies of the detector performance as a function of luminosity, environmental conditions and working point settings. Non-event based information including in particular the large number of gas gap currents, individually monitored with nA accuracy, have been used to study the detector behavior with growing luminosity and beam currents. These data are shown to provide, when calibrated, an independent luminosity measurement and a crucial handle for understanding the ATLAS backgrounds well beyond the scope of muon triggering and detection. The measurements presented here allow to plan a strategy for the data taking in the next years and make some predictions about the detector performance at higher luminosities. They also improve the knowledge on RPC detector physics.