Calibration of the RPC charge readout in the ARGO-YBJ experiment

Aielli, G.; Bacci, C.; Bartoli, B.; Bernardini, Paolo; X. J., Bi; Bleve, C.; Branchini, P.; Budano, A.; Bussino, S.; Calabrese Melcarne, A. K.; Camarri, P.; Cao, Z.; Cappa, A.; Cardarelli, R.; Catalanotti, S.; Cattaneo, C.; Celio, P.; Chen, S. Z.; Chen, T. L.; Chen, Y.; Cheng, N.; Creti, P.; Cui, S. W.; Dai, B. Z.; D’Alı´ Staiti, G.; Danzengluobu,; Dattoli, M.; DE MITRI, Ivan; D’Ettorre Piazzoli, B.; De Vincenzi, M.; Di Girolamo, T.; Ding, X. H.; Di Sciascio, G.; Feng, C. F.; Feng, Zhaoyang; Feng, Zhenyong; Galeazzi, F.; Galeotti, P.; Gargana, R.; Gou, Q. B.; Guo, Y. Q.; H. H., He; Haibing, Hu; Hongbo, Hu; Huang, Q.; Iacovacci, M.; Iuppa, R.; James, I.; Jia, H. Y.; Labaciren,; H. J., Li; J. Y., Li; X. X., Li; Liberti, B.; Liguori, G.; Liu, C.; Liu, C. Q.; Liu, M. Y.; Liu, J.; Lu, H.; X. H., Ma; Mancarella, Giovanni; Mari, S. M.; Marsella, Giovanni; Martello, Daniele; Mastroianni, S.; Meng, X. R.; Montini, P.; Ning, C. C.; Pagliaro, A.; Panareo, Marco; Perrone, Lorenzo; Pistilli, P.; X. B., Qu; Rossi, E.; Ruggieri, F.; Saggese, L.; Salvini, P.; Santonico, R.; Shen, P. R.; Sheng, X. D.; Shi, F.; Stanescu, C.; Surdo, A.; Tan, Y. H.; Vallania, P.; Vernetto, S.; Vigorito, C.; Wang, B.; Wang, H.; C. Y., Wu; H. R., Wu; Xu, B.; Xue, L.; Yan, Y. X.; Yang, Q. Y.; Yang, X. C.; Yuan, A. F.; Zha, M.; Zhang, H. M.; Zhang, Jilong; Zhang, Jianli; Zhang, L.; Zhang, P.; Zhang, X. Y.; Zhang, Y.; Zhaxisangzhu,; Zhou, X. X.; Zhu, F. R.; Zhu, Q. Q.; Zizzi, G.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2010.09.066

The charge readout of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) is implemented in the ARGO-YBJ experiment to measure the charged particle density of the shower front up to 10^4 / m^2, enabling the study of the primary cosmic rays with energies in the ‘‘knee’’ region. As the first time for RPCs being used this way, a telescope with RPCs and scintillation detectors is setup to calibrate the number of charged particles hitting a RPC versus its charge readout. Air shower particles are taken as the calibration beam. The telescope was tested at sea level and then moved to the ARGO-YBJ site for coincident operation with the ARGO-YBJ experiment. The charge readout shows good linearity with the particle density in the dynamic range (up to 200/m^2).