# A study of aging effects of barrel Time-Of-Flight system in the BESIII experiment

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the aging effects on the barrel Time-Of-Flight system in the BESIII experiment, analyzing degradation over years to ensure optimal long-term operation of the detector.

## Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of aging effects on the detector's attenuation lengths and gains, which is crucial for maintaining performance.

## Key findings

- Aging causes degradation in detection efficiency.
- Attenuation lengths decrease over time.
- Relative gains are affected by aging.

## Abstract

The Time-Of-Flight system consisting of plastic scintillation counters plays an important role for particle identification in the BESIII experiment at the BEPCII double ring $e^+e^-$ collider. Degradation of the detection efficiency of the barrel TOF system has been observed since the start of physical data taking and this effect has triggered intensive and systematic studies about aging effects of the detector. The aging rates of the attenuation lengths and relative gains are obtained based on the data acquired in past several years. This study is essential for ensuring an extended operation of the barrel TOF system in optimal conditions.