https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201714603030
Monte carlo simulations of the n_TOF lead spallation target with the Geant4 toolkit: A benchmark study
1 Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
2 Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
3 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna, Italy
4 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Italy
5 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Italy
6 CEA Saclay, Irfu, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
7 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland
8 University of Lodz, Poland
9 Institut de Physique Nucléaire, CNRS-IN2P3, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91406 Orsay Cedex, France
10 Technische Universität Wien, Austria
11 Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Spain
12 Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
13 University of Manchester, UK
14 University of Zagreb, Croatia
15 University of York, UK
16 University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
17 Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
18 INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy
19 Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari, Italy
20 Instituto de Física Corpuscular, Universidad de Valencia, Spain
21 Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villingen, Switzerland
22 Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal
23 Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
24 Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Romania
25 Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Tokai-mura, Japan
26 European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Geel, Retieseweg 111, 2440 Geel, Belgium
27 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus North, IKP, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
28 National Technical University of Athens, Greece
29 School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, UK
30 Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany
31 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Legnaro, Italy
32 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bari, Italy
33 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, Italy
34 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Italy
35 University of Ioannina, Greece
36 University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Vienna, Austria
37 University of Granada, Spain
38 Department of Physics, University of Basel, Switzerland
39 Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, UK
40 Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India
41 Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
a e-mail: jlerendegui@us.es
Published online: 13 September 2017
Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are an essential tool to determine fundamental features of a neutron beam, such as the neutron flux or the γ-ray background, that sometimes can not be measured or at least not in every position or energy range. Until recently, the most widely used MC codes in this field had been MCNPX and FLUKA. However, the Geant4 toolkit has also become a competitive code for the transport of neutrons after the development of the native Geant4 format for neutron data libraries, G4NDL. In this context, we present the Geant4 simulations of the neutron spallation target of the n_TOF facility at CERN, done with version 10.1.1 of the toolkit. The first goal was the validation of the intra-nuclear cascade models implemented in the code using, as benchmark, the characteristics of the neutron beam measured at the first experimental area (EAR1), especially the neutron flux and energy distribution, and the time distribution of neutrons of equal kinetic energy, the so-called Resolution Function. The second goal was the development of a Monte Carlo tool aimed to provide useful calculations for both the analysis and planning of the upcoming measurements at the new experimental area (EAR2) of the facility.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
