We present the program optics that simulates the light response of an
arbitrarily shaped scintillation particle detector. Predicted light responses
of pure CsI polygonal detectors, plastic scintillator staves, cylindrical
plastic target scintillators and a Plexiglas light-distribution plate are
illustrated. We demonstrate how different bulk and surface optical properties
of a scintillator lead to specific volume and temporal light collection
probability distributions. High-statistics optics simulations are calibrated
against the detector responses measured in a custom-made cosmic muon tomography
apparatus. The presented code can also be used to track particles intersecting
complex geometrical objects.Comment: RevTeX LaTeX, 37 pages in e-print format, 12 Postscript Figures and 1
Table, also available at
http://pibeta.phys.virginia.edu/public_html/preprints/optics.p
