Improving rate capability of Resistive Plate Chambers

The High Luminosity phase of Large Hadron Collider, foreseen to start in less then ten years from now, has triggered the development of a new generation of gaseous detectors with much improved performance with respect to the present ones. For what concerns Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs), research is focusing on the methods to increase their rate capability, i.e. the maximum flux of impinging particles that these devices can stand without losing efficiency for a prolonged period of time. Different solutions are being proposed and extensively investigated upon. Here a brief overview of the physics processes taking place in RPCs at high rate is presented. The fundamental parameters that influence rate capability are taken into exam and the way how they can be optimized in order to increase rate capability is outlined. A comparison between the models used and experimental data confirms the goodness of the approach and the validity of results obtained.