The dual Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector for the Electron-Ion Collider

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is the new particle accelerator planned in the US and designed to collide polarized electrons with polarized protons and nuclei and investigate the dynamics of quarks and gluons. For the general purpose detector at EIC, the capability to distinguish charged particles over the full momentum range is required. A prototype of dual Ring Imaging Cherenkov (dRICH), a detector which exploits the Cherenkov light produced in two different mediums, is being developed as an EIC_NET initiative to discriminate between charged particles from few GeV/$c$ up to 50 Gev/$c$, and supports electron identification in the EIC hadronic endcap. Particles crossing a layer of aerogel and a volume of $C_{2}F_{6}$ gas with a velocity greater than the light in medium, produce Cherenkov photons which are focalized by two different spherical mirrors onto the same photon detector array. The combined information of two imaged Cherenkov rings and the particle momentum allow to infer its mass and therefore its type. Two test beams were performed at CERN in fall 2021, when a full tracking and imaging system has been commissioned. I will describe the prototype and the results obtained.