A Generalized Boltzmann Fokker-Planck Method for Coupled Charged Particle Transport
- Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
The goal of this project was to develop and investigate the performance of reduced-physics formulations of high energy charged particle (electrons, protons and heavier ions) transport that are computationally more efficient than not only analog Monte Carlo methods but also the established condensed history Monte Carlo technique. Charged particles interact with matter by Coulomb collisions with target nuclei and electrons, by bremsstrahlung radiation loss and by nuclear reactions such as spallation and fission. Of these, inelastic electronic collisions and elastic nuclear collisions are the dominant cause of energy-loss straggling and angular deflection or range straggling of a primary particle. These collisions are characterized by extremely short mean free paths (sub-microns) and highly peaked, near-singular differential cross sections about forward directions and zero energy loss, with the situation for protons and heavier ions more extreme than for electrons. For this reason, analog or truephysics single-event Monte Carlo simulation, while possible in principle, is computationally prohibitive for routine calculation of charged particle interaction phenomena.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG07-07ID14771
- OSTI ID:
- 1033565
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ID--14771
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Deterministic models for energy-loss straggling
A hybrid multigroup/continuous-energy Monte Carlo method for solving the Boltzmann-Fokker-Planck equation