Simulation of Scintillator Counters with Embedded Wavelength-Shifting Fibers

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive simulation framework for scintillator counters with embedded wavelength-shifting fibers, accurately modeling photon production, propagation, and detection, validated against Fermilab test-beam data.

Contribution

It introduces an end-to-end simulation of scintillator counters with embedded fibers, including photon and signal modeling, tuned to experimental data.

Findings

Simulation matches test-beam data accurately

Efficient photon propagation using lookup tables

Validated for Mu2e cosmic-ray veto detector

Abstract

We describe a complete end-to-end simulation of the response of scintillator counters to charged particles. The counters were extruded with a titanium dioxide surface coating and two channels for the embedded wavelength-shifting fibers which are read out by silicon photomultipliers. The simulation includes the production and propagation of scintillation and Cerenkov photons, the response of the silicon photomultipliers, and the generation of the signal waveforms. Probability lookup tables are used to speed up the simulation of the photon propagation inside the counters. The simulation was tuned to match measured data obtained from a test-beam study in the Fermilab Meson Test Beam Facility using 120 GeV protons. The counters are intended to be used in the cosmic-ray veto detector for the Mu2e experiment at Fermilab.