Hi-tech nature In the pythagorean philosophy 5 is the symbol of union: in NANO5 it represents co-working transport schemes
 

NANO5 is a Geant4-related R&D project. It was approved as part of INFN scientific programme of Technology Research in September 2008, with start in January 2009. It gathers an international team of collaborating scientists at various  institutes in Europe, Asia, Northern and Southern America.

Research Programme

NANO5's R&D addresses fundamental issues in radiation transport simulation; it investigates  conceptual and technological solutions to extend the current capabilities of the Geant4 toolkit to cope with a set of new experimental requirements.

The topics of research encompass:

They derive from concrete experimental requirements and are addressed through the collaborative effort of simulation experts and experimental groups.

Rationale

Geant4 is nowadays a mature Monte Carlo system; it is widely used in a variety of experimental applications, as demonstrated by the fact that its reference article is the most cited publication in the Nuclear Science and Technology category of the Journal Citation Reports.

Geant4 is the result of a R&D project, RD44, carried out between 1994 and 1998. RD44 was launched at a time when the LEP experiments were running GEANT 3 as a well-established system refined throughout a decade of production service. RD44 investigated the adoption of the object oriented technology and C++ for a simulation system replacing GEANT 3.21, and developed the first functional version of the Geant4 toolkit released in December 1998.

Since then, new functionality has been added to the toolkit in the following releases; nevertheless, the architectural design and fundamental concepts defining Geant4 application domain have remained substantially unchanged since their original conception in the very early phase of RD44.

The scientific context that has evolved since the conclusion of Geant4 RD44 phase motivates new R&D on simulation methods. New experimental requirements have emerged in the recent years, which challenge the conventional application domain of Monte Carlo transport codes like Geant4. Research in nanodosimetry, nanotechnology-based detectors, radiation effects on components in space and at high luminosity colliders, nuclear power, plasma physics etc. would profit not only of new Geant4 physics functionality, but also of new methodological approaches to radiation transport simulation.  Significant technological developments both in software and computing hardware have also occurred since the mid '90s: the development of new paradigms like generic programming, generative programming and aspect oriented programming, the spread of multi-paradigm languages like Python and Ruby, the availability of multi-core COTS hardware etc.

Current Status and Projects

 The current activity is focused on the issue of simulation at different scale, requiring co-working condensed and discrete schemes. A set of propaedeutic investigations is taking place in the first stage to gain in-depth understanding of relevant physics problems and to evaluate candidate technologies in concrete prototype implementations.

Some of the topics currently under study are:

References

(complete list of publications) (complete list of conference presentations)

Journals

M. Batic, G. Hoff, M. G. Pia, P. Saracco, Photon elastic scattering simulation: validation and improvements to Geant4
IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 1636-1664, Aug. 2012 arXiv:1206.0498 preprint Paper

M. Batic, M. G. Pia, S. J. Cipolla, ISICSoo: a class for the calculation of ionization cross sections from ECPSSR and PWBA theory
Comp. Phys. Comm. vol. 183, no. 2, pp. 398-404, Feb. 2012 arXiv:1110.0613 preprint Paper

H. Seo, M. G. Pia, P. Saracco, C. H. Kim, Ionization cross sections for low energy electron transport
IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 58, no. 6, Dec. 2011 arXiv:1110.2357 preprint Paper

  M. G. Pia, H. Seo, M. Batic, M. Begalli, C. H. Kim, L. Quintieri, P. Saracco, Evaluation of atomic electron binding energies for Monte Carlo particle transport
IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 58, no. 6, Dec. 2011 arXiv:1109.6079 preprint Paper

M. Batic,  M. G. Pia, P. Saracco, Validation of proton ionization cross section generators for Monte Carlo particle transport
IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 58, no. 6, Dec. 2011 arXiv:1110.2413 preprint Paper

M. G. Pia, M. Begalli, A. Lechner, L. Quintieri, P. Saracco, Physics-related epistemic uncertainties of proton depth dose simulation
 To be published in IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 57, no. 5, Oct. 2010 Paper

M. G. Pia, G. Weidenspointner, M. Augelli, L. Quintieri, P. Saracco, M. Sudhakar, A. Zoglauer, PIXE simulation with Geant4
IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 3614-3649, Dec. 2009 Paper

M. G. Pia, P. Saracco, M. Sudhakar, Validation of radiative transition probability calculations
IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 3650-3661, Dec. 2009 Paper

Conferences

 M. G. Pia et al., Refactoring, reengineering and evolution: paths to Geant4 uncertainty quantification and performance improvement
     CHEP 2012, New York, May 2012
 M. G. Pia, T. Basaglia, Z. W. Bell, P. V. Dressendorfer, Publication patterns in HEP computing
   CHEP 2012, New York, May 2012
 M. Batic, G. Hoff, M. G. Pia, P. Saracco, Algorithms and parameters for improved accuracy in physics data libraries
   CHEP 2012, New York, May 2012
 M. Batic, G. Hoff, M. G. Pia, Precision analysis of Geant4 condensed transport effects on energy deposition in detectors
   CHEP 2012, New York, May 2012
 M. Batic, A. M. Paganoni, A. Pfeiffer, M. G. Pia, A. Ribon, A new development cycle of the Statistical Toolkit (Winner of Best Poster selection)
   CHEP 2012, New York, May 2012
 M. G. Pia et al., Quantifying the unknown: issues in simulation validation and their experimental impact
   ICATPP 2011, Como, October 2011
  H. Seo, M. G. Pia, P. Saracco, C. H. Kim, Ionisation models for nano-scale simulation  
   Proc. CHEP 2010, J. Phys. Conf. Series, 2012
 M. Han et al., New data libraries and physics data management tools
   Proc. CHEP 2010, J. Phys. Conf. Series, 2012
 M. Augelli et al., Inter-Comparison and Validation of Geant4 Photon Interaction Models Preprint
   Proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 2009, Orlando
 M. G. Pia et al., Validation of fluorescence transition probability calculations Preprint
   Proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 2009, Orlando
 
M. G. Pia et al., Recent Developments on PIXE Simulation with Geant4 Preprint 
   Proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 2009, Orlando
 E. Gargioni et al., Re-engineering a nanodosimetry Monte Carlo code into Geant4: software design and first results Preprint    
   Proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 2009, Orlando
 M. Augelli et al., Geant4-related R&D for new particle transport methods Preprint    
   Proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 2009, Orlando
 M. Augelli et al., Research in Geant4 electromagnetic physics design, and its effects on computational performance and quality assurance Preprint
   Proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 2009, Orlando
 M. G. Pia, T. Basaglia, Z. W. Bell, P. V. Dressendorfer, Geant4 in Scientific Literature Preprint    
   Proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 2009, Orlando
 S. Hauf et al., Progress and Validation of Geant4 Based Radioactive Decay Simulation Using the Examples of Simbol-X and IXO Preprint  
   Proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 2009, Orlando
G. Weidenspointner et al., NANO5 Geant4 related R&D for new particle transport methods
   11th European Symposium on Semiconductor Detectors, Wildbad Kreuth, June 2009
M. G. Pia et al., R&D for co-working condensed and discrete transport methods in Geant4 kernel
   Proc. Int. Conf. on Mathematics, Computational Methods & Reactor Physics (M&C 2009), New York 2009
  M. G. Pia et al., New models for PIXE simulation with Geant4 Preprint
   Proceedings of CHEP (Computing in High Energy Physics) 2009
M. G. Pia et al., Design and performance evaluations of generic programming techniques in a R&D prototype of Geant4 physics  Preprint
   Proceedings of  CHEP (Computing in High Energy Physics) 2009
 M. G. Pia et al., R&D on co-working transport schemes in Geant4 Preprint
   Proceedings of CHEP (Computing in High Energy Physics) 2009


Last modified 27 September 2012, Maria Grazia Pia