Beam and ageing tests with a highly–saturated avalanche gas mixture for the ALICE p–p data taking

The trigger detectors for the Muon Forward Spectrometer of the ALICE experiment will be single gap RPCs with low–resistivity bakelite electrodes. The detector will take data for different colliding systems resulting in a wide range of working conditions and requirements, especially concerning position resolution and detector lifetime. To this aim we have investigated the possibility to operate the RPCs both in streamer and in highly–saturated avalanche mode with the same FE electronics. In this paper we present the results obtained in a test with cosmic rays, as well as from beam and ageing tests with the gas mixture that allows for highly–saturated avalanche operation.