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Abstract
The influence of fast neutrons on the occupancy and the single tube resolution of
ATLAS muon drift detectors was investigated by exposing a chamber built out of 3 layers
of 3 short standard drift tubes to neutron flux-densities of up to 16 kHz/cm2 at a
neutron energy of E=11 MeV. Pulse shape capable NE213 scintillaton detectors and a
calibrated BF3 neutron detector provided monitoring of the neutron flux-density and
energy. The sensitivity of the drift chamber to the neutrons was measured to be 4*10-4
by comparing data sets with and without neutron background. For the investigation
of tracks of cosmic muons two silicon-strip detectors above and underneath the chamber
allow to compare measured drift-radii with reference tracks. Alternatively, the single
tube resolution was determined using the triple-sum method. The comparison between
data with and without neutron irradiation shows only a marginal effect on the resolution
and little influence on the muon track reconstruction.