The new HADES ToF Forward Detector

The High-Acceptance DiElectron Spectrometer (HADES) at GSI Darmstadt consists of a 6-coil toroidal magnet centered on the beam axis and six identical detection sections located between the coils and covering polar angles between 18 degrees and 85 degrees. The physics aims include the study of the properties of hot and dense hadronic matter as well as elementary and pion-induced reactions.To increase the acceptance of HADES at very low polar angles in the forward region, between 0.5 degrees and 7 degrees, a new detector, the Forward Detector (FD), has been built. The FD is composed of a tracking and a Time Of Flight (TOF) detector based on Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) technology. The TOF detector, covering an area of around 2 m2, is composed by 128 strip-like shielded RPC cells, with two different widths 22 mm and 44 mm and 750 mm length distributed in four modules symmetrically placed around the beam axis. Each cell is composed by four gas gaps, 0.270 mm, delimited by three (2 mm) aluminum and two (1 mm) glass electrodes. In order to cope with an expected maximum particle load of around 400 Hz/cm2, close to the beam axis, the detector is operated above room temperature in order to decrease the resistivity of the glass and increase the count rate capability.Details of the system construction and results concerning timing precision are described in this communi-cation. The detector was operated at 31.5 degrees C with a maximum particle load of around 600 Hz/cm2 during a production beam time for six weeks in early 2022 showing an average time precision of around 80 ps.