A Monte Carlo investigation of lead-scintillator calorimeters for hadrons

The FLUKA Monte Carlo code has been used augmented by models of the low energy neutron cascade to study hadronic shower development in the multilayer structure of lead-scintillator calorimeters. Hadron detection is investigated for the range of thicknesses of scintillator plates from 0.1 to 0.5 cm and absorber plates from 0.1 to 2.5 cm, as well as for incident hadron energies in the range from 3 to 200 GeV and for 1 TeV. Good agreement is found with measurements, including the sampling fluctuations. The effects of lateral energy leakage on the calorimeter signal and its resolution are discussed.