LHCb: Study of the Performance of the LHCb Muon System with First LHC Data

The LHCb Muon System is composed by five detection stations (M1-M5), one upstream and four downstream of the calorimeter system, equipped on the 99% of the surface with a total of 1368 Multi-Wire Proportional Chambers (MWPC). Triple-GEM detectors with digital pad readout were chosen for the innermost region of the first station thanks to their excellent performances, in particular for what concerns rate capability and radiation hardness. In order to allow a fast evaluation of the transverse momentum of muons, all detectors are required to have a high efficiency, a fast response and a good space resolution with a readout granularity that decreases with the distance from the beam axis. The detector installation phase (2006-2009) was followed by an extensive commissioning and events were acquired with pulse trigger to several millions of cosmic tracks already in the commissioning phase and are being used for the first LHC collisions.