Aging study on Resistive Plate Chambers of the CMS Muon Detector for HL-LHC

In the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) program, during the next years, the instantaneous luminosity will increase up to 5 × 10³⁴ cm⁻² s⁻¹ which means a factor five higher than the nominal LHC luminosity. In that period, the present CMS Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) system will be subjected to background rates higher than those for which the detectors have been designed, which could affect the detector properties and induce aging effects. To study whether the present RPC system can sustain the hard background conditions during the HL-LHC running period, a dedicated longevity test is ongoing at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility, where a few spare RPCs are exposed to high gamma radiation for a long term period to mimic the HL-LHC operational conditions. During the longevity test, the main detector parameters are continuously monitored as a function of the integrated charge. Preliminary results of the study, after having collected a sufficient amount of the expected integrated charge at HL-LHC, will be presented.