CREME96 and GEANT4 are two well known particle transport codes through matter in space science. We present a comparison between the proton fluxes outgoing from an aluminium target, obtained by using both tools. The primary proton flux is obtained by CREME96 only, covering an energy range from MeV to hundreds GeV with the same result in both cases. We studied different thickness targets and two different GEANT4 physics lists in order to show how the spectra of the outgoing proton fluxes are modified. Our findings show consistent agreement of simulation data by each tool, with regards both GEANT4 physics lists and every thickness target analysed.
Deep Dive into GEANT4 and CREME96 comparison using only proton fluxes.
CREME96 and GEANT4 are two well known particle transport codes through matter in space science. We present a comparison between the proton fluxes outgoing from an aluminium target, obtained by using both tools. The primary proton flux is obtained by CREME96 only, covering an energy range from MeV to hundreds GeV with the same result in both cases. We studied different thickness targets and two different GEANT4 physics lists in order to show how the spectra of the outgoing proton fluxes are modified. Our findings show consistent agreement of simulation data by each tool, with regards both GEANT4 physics lists and every thickness target analysed.
The scientific world makes use of several simulation codes to study the interactions between radiation and matter, as can be see in the overview reported in sec. 1. In our study, we focused on two of these, CREME96 and GEANT4 both described in sec. 2. These two toolkits are characterized by different physics, both illustrated in sec. 3. In order to realize this study we implemented a specific simulation set-up, as defined in sec. 4, and we used a statistic data analysis explained in sec. 5. Our results, reported in sec. 6, show the agreement between CREME96 and GEANT4. As we suggest in 7, these promising results have encouraged us to undertake further comparisons using different types of primary particles.
Nowadays there are several particle transport codes through matter, for example CREME86, CREME96 [1], FLUKA [2], GEANT3 [3], GEANT4 [4], MARS [5], MCNP [6], MCNPX [7], PHITS. These tools use different languages, but most of the codes are designed in fortran; f77 for GEANT3, FLUKA, PHITS; f90 in the case of MCNPX and f95, for MARS. The only one of these examples in C++ is GEANT4. Source codes for CREME86 and 96 are not freely available.
Each is developed by a different community. The owner of CREME, 86 and 96, is the USA Naval Research Laboratory. On the other hand MCNPX is developed by LANL. The GEANT4 community includes CERN, ESA, IN2P3, PPARC, INFN, LIP, KEK, SLAC, TRIUMF. FLUKA support is made by CERN and INFN researchers and MARS is a FNAL laboratory production. Finally, PHITS code is managed by JAEA, RIST, GSI and Chalmers University.
Because of these differences, working simultaneously with all these codes is a very hard task. Therefore a scientist usually carries out research on one particular code and sometimes makes a comparison between their own software and another code. Examples of this kind of comparative study [8] have already beeen undertaken for FLUKA and GEANT4 and [9] for CREME 86 and GEANT4.
As previously stated (sec. 1), there are many tools simulating the passage of particles through matter. In our study we focused on two of these: CREME96 and GEANT4.
• Cosmic Ray Effects on Micro-Electronics (CREME) is a toolkit developed to study the effects of an ionizing radiation environment on the electronics inside a satellite, i.e. Single Event Upsets (SEU) due to solar heavy ions [10].
The CREME96 user manages the simulation by point and click method, by means of an easy-touse graphical interface avaiable on-line at [1].
CREME96’s principal features, for instance the physical models used and their limitations, are reported in [11]. These models and their constraints are an important element of our study, for this reason we will describe them in more detail below.
• GEANT4, GEometry ANd Tracking (particles), is a Monte Carlo toolkit for simulating the passage of the particles through matter, avaiable on-line at [4].
GEANT4’s first production release was completed in December 1998 [12]. Unlike its ancestor GEANT3, in fortran 77, GEANT4 is designed in C++.
In GEANT4 there is not a default physics list, therefore the user must define his/her specific physics. The features of our GEANT4 physics list are explained in sec. 3.
Moreover, in GEANT4 there is no preimplemented definition of particle flux. In order to overcome such a problem, QinetiQ developed MUlti-LAyered Shielding SImulation Software (MULASSIS [13]), a GEANT4 interfacing tool, which also contains other features to work with this Monte Carlo code.
We did not consider MULASSIS for two reasons. Firstly, because we prefered to make a direct comparison between CREME96 and GEANT4 without being compelled to also take into account the additional aspect of an intermediate programme. Secondly, we needed to input both CREME96 and GEANT4 radiation transport calculation packages with exactly the same particle flux output (the same particle flux output produced as a text file by CREME96). Conducting the same study using MULASSIS would have added extra complications.
For these two reasons we did not use MULASSIS, deciding instead to work with a simple code suitable for our research purposes.
CREME96 and GEANT4 were developed by two different scientific communities in different time periods. As a result their physics show a number of differences.
• The physics of CREME96 includes models of the Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs), Anomalous Cosmic Ray (ACRs), Solar Particle Events (SPEs) and a geomagnetic transmission calculations. These models are used for building a flux of particles about an orbit defined by the user. The proton flux used in our study is generated by CREME96 only, because it is not possible for GEANT4 to do it.
Another aspect of CREME96’s physics model is the nuclear transport physics through the shielding material. This tool takes into account both ionization energy loss (in the continuous slowing down approximation) and nuclear fragmentation. It implements stopping power and range-energy routines and uses semi-empirical en
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