Measurement of the rate capability of Resistive Plate Chambers

This paper reports on detailed measurements of the performance of Resistive Plate Chambers in a proton beam with variable intensity. Short term effects, such as dead time, are studied using consecutive events. On larger time scales, for various beam intensities the chamber's efficiency is studied as a function of time within a spill of particles. The correlation between the efficiency of chambers placed in the same beam provides an indication of the lateral size of the observed effects. The measurements are compared to the predictions of a simple model based on the assumption that the resistive plates behave as pure resistors.