RPCs and readout system for the neutrino detector of the SHiP experiment

SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles) is a proposed experiment to be installed at CERN, with the aim of exploring the high intensity beam frontier to investigate the so-called Hidden Sector. Since the SPS proton beam interacting with the SHiP high density target is expected to produce a large neutrino flux, the experiment will also study neutrino physics with unprecedented statistics. A dedicated Scattering and Neutrino Detector (SND) is thus being designed. It consists of a nuclear emulsion target and a tracking fibres detector in magnetic field followed by a Muon Identification System. The Muon System is composed of iron filters interleaved with tracking planes, instrumented with Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) operated in avalanche mode. Each plane consists of three gaps read out by two panels of perpendicular strips. The RPC read-out electronics is being developed. It is based on the use of front-end Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) connected to a concentration system, transmitting data serially at high speed via optical link to the data acquisition and control system. A small-scale prototype of the SHiP Muon Identification System, with five RPC planes consisting of one large gap each, has been produced and exposed at CERN H4 facility in a test beam.