Benchmarking Geant4 for simulating galactic cosmic ray interactions within planetary bodies

Mesick, K. E.; Feldman, W. C.; Coupland, D. D. S.; Stonehill, L. C.

doi:10.1029/2018EA000400

Title: Benchmarking Geant4 for simulating galactic cosmic ray interactions within planetary bodies

Journal Article · Wed Jun 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Earth and Space Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EA000400· OSTI ID:1457313

Mesick, K. E. ^[1]; Feldman, W. C. ^[2]; Coupland, D. D. S. ^[1]; Stonehill, L. C. ^[1]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Planetary Science Inst., Tucson, AZ (United States)

Galactic cosmic rays undergo complex nuclear interactions with nuclei within planetary bodies that have little to no atmosphere. Radiation transport simulations are a key tool used in understanding the neutron and gamma-ray albedo coming from these interactions and tracing these signals back to geochemical composition of the target. In this paper, we study the validity of the code Geant4 for simulating such interactions by comparing simulation results to data from the Apollo 17 Lunar Neutron Probe Experiment. Different assumptions regarding the physics are explored to demonstrate how these impact the Geant4 simulation results. In general, all of the Geant4 results over-predict the data, however, certain physics lists perform better than others. Finally, in addition, we show that results from the radiation transport code MCNP6 are similar to those obtained using Geant4.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); LANL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1457313

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-18-22146; TRN: US1901353

Journal Information:: Earth and Space Science, Vol. 5, Issue 7; ISSN 2333-5084

Publisher:: American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 10 works

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