GEANT4 Tutorial Course for Beginners
@ Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory June 1-4, 2009
Shigeyuki Tajima Duke/NCCU and TUNL
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
Introduction to GEANT4
Shigeyuki Tajima Duke/NCCU and TUNL
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
What is GEANT4 ?
GEANT4 is a toolkit for the simulation of the passage of particles through matter.
Often used in physics (nuclear, high-energy, accelerator, and medical) as well as space science Toolkit: Using GEANT4, users need to build a simulation program. Developed from GEANT3 (fortran). GEANT4 is written in C++ (Object-Oriented programming) Developed and maintained by GEANT4 Collaboration ( http://www.cern.ch/geant4 )
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
What does GEANT stand for?
There seem to be two answers:
GEneration ANd Tracking (End of 1970s, at the beginning of GEANT1) GEometry ANd Tracking (Nowadays)
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
Why is simulation needed anyway?
In nuclear/high-energy physics, Monte-Carlo simulation is often needed to do the followings:
To determine the experimental setup
optimize the detector/shielding locations to obtain decent results in experiment study the expected background and radiation level Compare the simulated results with experiment to make sure there is no error in analysis (or simulation code). Correct the experimental results by comparing them with simulated results with inputs from theory
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
What are needed in simulation?
To simulate a nuclear physics experiment, information on the followings is needed.
Beam Target Detectors E&M Fields Physics interactions (in the target and detector) and cross sections and so on...
Detector Beam Target
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
What are needed in GEANT4?
Below is a minimum list of things users need to do in GEANT4 programming
Dene Materials and Geometries (target, detector...) Add E&M elds [optional] Dene particles and physics interactions Decide how a primary event should be generated and so on...
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
What are needed in GEANT4?
Below is a minimum list of things users need to do in GEANT4 programming
G4VUserDetectorConstruction class
Dene Materials and Geometries (target, detector...) Add E&M elds [optional] Dene particles and physics interactions
G4VUserPhysicsList class
Decide how a primary event should be generated and so on...
G4VUserPrimaryGeneratorAction class
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
Then, what does GEANT4 do for you?
A particle is transported through matter for every step until the particle
goes out of the world volume loses its kinetic energy to zero it disappears by an interaction or decay
Users can access the transportation process to get the simulated results ==> USER Action at the beginning and end of transportation at the end of each transportation step when the particle enters the sensitive volume of the detector
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
GEANT4 related resources
GEANT4 Home page: http://cern.ch/geant4 Overview of C++ for GEANT4 users: http://geant4.in2p3.fr/2007/prog/prog.htm software reference manual and GEANT4 cross reference are available to understand Geant4 classes
GEANT4 Tutorial classes held almost every year by SLAC GEANT4 team [Many lecture slides available online]
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
GEANT4 credits
Two main reference papers for Geant4 have been published:
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 506 (2003) 250-303 IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 53 No. 1 (2006) 270-278.
Geant4 software license is given at http://cern.ch/geant4/license .
Many course slides for this TUNL geant4 tutorial are courtesy of SLAC GEANT4 team ( http://geant4.slac.stanford.edu/ )
GEANT4 Tutorial @ TUNL Jun 1-4, 2009
