The physics of Resistive Plate Chambers

Over the last 3 years we investigated theoretical aspects of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) in order to clarify some of the outstanding questions on space charge effects, high efficiency of small gap RPCs, charge spectra, signal shape and time resolution. In a series of reports we analyzed RPC performance including all detector aspects covering primary ionization, avalanche multiplication, space charge effects, signal induction in presence of resistive materials, crosstalk along detectors with long strips and front-end electronics. Using detector gas parameters entirely based on theoretical predictions and physical models for avalanche development and space charge effects we are able to reproduce measurements for 2 and 0.3 mm RPCs to very high accuracy without any additional assumptions. This fact gives a profound insight into the workings of RPCs and also underlines the striking difference in operation regime when compared to wire chambers. A summary of this work as well as recent results on three-dimensional electric field distributions inside the avalanches are presented.