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First glass‑RPC telescope detects reconstructed tracks in a high‑power laser experiment

November 10, 2026arXiv: 2611.09541v1

A portable glass Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) array was flown into the ELBA laser‑wakefield accelerator and operated during 30 fs, 0.5 PW pulses firing at 0.2 Hz. Three 20 × 20 cm² chambers, each with a 16 × 16 cm² active region and 16 readout strips, were sealed in a gas‑tight enclosure and ran in a 95.2 % Freon, 4.5 % isobutane gas mix at atmospheric pressure. The detector stayed functional in the presence of radiation and electromagnetic noise.

A schematic of a glass RPC telescope with three chambers inside a sealed enclosure
Figure 1. Illustration of the gas‑tight glass RPC telescope used in the ELBA experiment, showing the three chambers sealed in a housing.Ikram, S., Ahmadi, D., Chaulagain, U., Cimmino, A., Gil, E. Cortina, Demin, P. et al. · arXiv:2611.09541v1 · Figure 1: · CC BY 4.0

During the beam tests the mean number of fired strips per event rose to 23 ± ? for beam‑induced activity, compared with 4.8 ± ? for cosmic‑ray events recorded in a reference run. This clear increase confirms that the telescope is sensitive to secondary particles produced when the laser interacts with the plasma target and that the detector can resolve individual tracks.

Plot of strip occupancy with separate panels for beam and cosmic‑ray data showing higher multiplicity in the beam panel (1/2)Plot of strip occupancy with separate panels for beam and cosmic‑ray data showing higher multiplicity in the beam panel (2/2)
Figure 7. Strip‑occupancy distributions for the D1 beam campaign (lower panel) and cosmic‑ray reference run (upper panel), indicating a mean strip multiplicity of 23 for beam events versus 4.8 for cosmic rays.Ikram, S., Ahmadi, D., Chaulagain, U., Cimmino, A., Gil, E. Cortina, Demin, P. et al. · arXiv:2611.09541v1 · Figure 7: · CC BY 4.0

Because data were taken parasitically and the event sample was limited, the study could not unambiguously identify muons among the beam‑induced particles. Nonetheless the track‑reconstruction performance and the distinct strip‑occupancy signatures show that a dedicated campaign with controlled beam conditions could enhance muon sensitivity.

These results demonstrate the feasibility of using a sealed glass‑RPC telescope in a high‑power laser laboratory and lay the groundwork for future muography experiments in such environments.

Source paper

Portable Glass-RPC Telescope for Muography and Future Applications at Laser Wake Field Accelerators

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