2013 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium - Medical Imaging Conference
Seoul, COEX, 31 October 2013 (date to be confirmed)

Refresher Course: Geant4 Physics Validation

Abstract

This Refresher Course overviews Geant4  main features, with emphasis on Geant4 physics modeling capabilities and their use in Monte Carlo simulation applications.

The selection of physics processes and models to be used in a simulation is one of the most critical tasks of Geant4 experimental applications. Geant4 users are responsible for configuring the physics of their simulation, since Geant4 does not provide any default physics settings. The configuration of a user application requires in-depth knowledge of Geant4 physics functionality to identify appropriate processes and models, and understanding of their validity to estimate the reliability and accuracy of simulation results.

Geant4 physics is by far the most difficult toolkit domain to master not only for novice users, but also for more experienced ones, due to its intrinsic complexity and the large number of available options.

This Refresher Course reviews Geant4 physics modeling options, the current status of their experimental validation and the quantitative assessment of their accuracy and provides guidance for using Geant4 physics in experimental applications.

An extensive introduction to Geant4 is available in the IEEE NSS-MIC Short Course on the Geant4 Simulation Toolkit.


Geant4

Geant4 is a software toolkit for the simulation of the interaction of particles with matter. It provides functionality for all the typical domains of detector simulation: geometry and material modeling, detector response, run and event management, particle transport, visualisation and user interface. An abundant set of physics processes handle the diverse interactions of particles with matter across a wide energy range, as required by Geant4 multi-disciplinary nature; for many physics processes a choice among different models is available. Geant4 exploits the object oriented technology to achieve transparency of the physics implementation, as well as openness to extension and evolution.

Geant4 application areas include high energy physics experiments, astrophysics and astroparticle physics, nuclear physics, space science, medical physics and medical imaging, radiation protection etc.  Geant4 first reference paper has received more than 4000 citations in scholarly literature at the time of this Refresher Course and is currently the most cited paper in the Particle & Fields Phyiscs, in the Nuclear Science & Technology and in the Instrument & Instrumentation categories (source: Web of  Knowledge™).

Geant4 source code and libraries are freely available, accompanied by extensive user documentation. 


Outline of the lecture


Lecture Notes

Slides of the Refresher Course.

Geant4 references:

  1. S. Agostinelli et al., Geant4 - a simulation toolkit, NIM A, vol. 506, no. 3, pp. 250-3031, 2003.
  2. J. Allison et al., Geant4 developments and applications, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 53, no. 1, pp.270-278, 2006.

Geant4 User Documentation


Lecturer 

Maria Grazia Pia is a physicist at INFN Genova, Italy. She has been a member of the Geant4 Collaboration since its R&D phase and has been contributing for more than 15 years to Geant4 physics design, development and validation. She has lead various projects within Geant4, including Low Energy Electromagnetic Physics, and R&D for applications in high energy physics, astrophysics and medical physics. Currently she leads a project aiming to open new frontiers to Monte Carlo simulation for particle transport as a quantitative science. She launched the Geant4 Training Programme and is active in the field of technology transfer.  Her Geant4-related activity is documented in several publications, many of which concern Geant4 physics validation. Maria Grazia Pia is Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.
INFN Sezione di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy - Phone: +39 010 353 6328, Fax: +39 010 313358

Attendance

This Refresher Course is open to IEEE NSS-MIC participant at no additional cost.
Registration is required to attend the Short Course on the Geant4 Simulation Toolkit.


Last update - Maria Grazia Pia