New prototype multi-gap resistive plate chambers with long strips

A new kind of Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPC) has been built for the large-area Muon Telescope Detector (MTD) for the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). These long read-out strip Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (LMRPCs) have an active area of 87.0×17.0 cm2 and ten 250 μm-thick gas gaps arranged as a double stack. Each read-out strip is 2.5 cm wide and 90 cm long. The signals are read-out at both ends of each strip. Cosmic ray tests indicate a time resolution of ∼70 ps and a detection efficiency of greater than 95%. Beam tests performed at T963 at Fermilab indicate a time resolution of 60–70 ps and a spatial resolution of ∼1 cm along the strip direction.