Making the most of aging scintillator

Large-area scintillation counters used for triggering on muons at collider detectors can involve long transmission lengths which make the collection of an adequate amount of light difficult. This is a problem which aggravates as scintillator properties deteriorate with time and/or absorbed radiation. Inspired by the technique presently being applied to the construction of its new muon counters, a solution has been developed at CDF, which has permitted the collaboration to retain its older components for run II despite a dramatic deterioration in attenuation length in the course of run I.