Results from the ARGO-YBJ experiment

The ARGO-YBJ experiment consists of a 5000 m2 single layer of Resistive Plate Chambers situated at Yangbajing, Tibet (P.R. of China), 4300 meters a.s.l. (atmospheric depth 600 g/cm2). The percentage of active area all over the carpet is 92% and a partially instrumented guard ring (1700 m2) around the central zone extends the instrumented area up to 11000 m2. The experiment is operated in scaler mode, shower mode and analog mode and is sensitive to cosmic rays in the 109-1015 eV energy range. From few hundreds GeV on, the arrival direction of cosmic rays is inferred by the study of the induced extensive air showers. A review of the most important results of the ARGO-YBJ experiment in gamma-ray astronomy and cosmic-ray physics will be given, focusing on the potential of RPCs in ground-based astroparticle physics.