Study for a large area acrylic scintillator detector

The use of acrylic scintillators in a 1000_sqm magnetic monopole detector was investigated. Due to the short attenuation length, lambda, (2 to 3 m) a chess board of squared counters of dimensions of the order of lambda, directly viewed by 2 or 4 photomultipliers at the corners is suggested. The analogical sum of the outputs of the photomultipliers seeing the same counter provides the best signal to be discriminated. The outputs separately analyzed in amplitude provide a rough localization of the events and an evaluation of the energy lost into the scintillator. Each photomultiplier can be coupled to more than one counter, reducing the number of photomultipliers and electronic channels. For instance a surface of 1200 sqm can be formed by 300 counters each 4 sqm, while the number of photomultipliers ranges from 180 to 1200 depending on the configuration.