Geant4 (for GEometry ANd Tracking) is a

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

for "the

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

of the passage of

particle In the Outline of physical science, physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small wikt:local, localized physical body, object which can be described by several physical property, physical or chemical property, chemical ...

s through

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic partic ...

" using

Monte Carlo methods Monte Carlo methods, or Monte Carlo experiments, are a broad class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results. The underlying concept is to use randomness to solve problems that might be determini ...

. It is the successor of the GEANT series of software toolkits developed b
The Geant4 Collaboration
and the first to use

object oriented programming Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of pro ...

(in

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

). Its development, maintenance and user support are taken care by the international Geant4 Collaboration. Application areas include

high energy physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and b ...

and

nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: * Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics *Nuclear space *Nuclear ...

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into Causality, cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome oc ...

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

, accelerator and

space physics Space physics, also known as solar-terrestrial physics or space-plasma physics, is the study of plasmas as they occur naturally in the Earth's upper atmosphere (aeronomy) and within the Solar System. As such, it encompasses a far-ranging number of ...

studies. The software is used by a number of research projects around the world. The Geant4 software and source code is freely available from the project web site; until version 8.1 (released June 28, 2006), no specific software license for its use existed; Geant4 is now provided under th
Geant4 Software License

Features

Geant4 includes facilities for handling

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

, tracking,

detector A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...

response, run management, visualization and

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

. For many physics simulations, this means less time needs to be spent on the low level details, and researchers can start immediately on the more important aspects of the simulation. Following is a summary of each of the facilities listed above: * ''Geometry'' is an analysis of the physical layout of the experiment, including detectors,

absorber In high energy physics experiments, an absorber is a block of material used to absorb some of the energy of an incident particle. Absorbers can be made of a variety of materials, depending on the purpose; lead, tungsten and liquid hydrogen are c ...

s, etc., and considering how this layout will affect the path of particles in the experiment. * ''Tracking'' is simulating the passage of a particle through matter. This involves considering possible

interaction Interaction is action that occurs between two or more objects, with broad use in philosophy and the sciences. It may refer to: Science * Interaction hypothesis, a theory of second language acquisition * Interaction (statistics) * Interactions o ...

s and

decay Decay may refer to: Science and technology * Bit decay, in computing * Software decay, in computing * Distance decay, in geography * Decay time (fall time), in electronics Biology * Decomposition of organic matter * Tooth decay (dental caries ...

processes. * ''Detector response'' is recording when a particle passes through the volume of a detector, and approximating how a real detector would respond. * ''Run management'' is recording the details of each ''run'' (a set of ''events''), as well as setting up the experiment in different configurations between runs. * Geant4 offers a number of options for ''visualization'', including

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

Open_Inventor Open Inventor, originally IRIS Inventor, is a C++ object-oriented retained mode 3D graphics toolkit designed by SGI to provide a higher layer of programming for OpenGL. Its main goals are better programmer convenience and efficiency. Open Inven ...

VRML VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language, pronounced ''vermal'' or by its initials, originally—before 1995—known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language) is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional (3D) interactive vector graphi ...

VTK The Visualization Toolkit (VTK) is an open-source software system for 3D computer graphics, image processing and scientific visualization.''Visualization Handbook'', Academic Press, 2005, Chapter 30: the Visualization Toolkit/ref> VTK is distrib ...

and a familiar ''user interface'', based on

Tcsh tcsh ( “tee-see-shell”, “tee-shell”, or as “tee see ess aitch”, tcsh) is a Unix shell based on and backward compatible with the C shell (csh). Shell It is essentially the C shell with programmable command-line completion, command-l ...

Qt_(software) Qt (pronounced "cute") is cross-platform software for creating graphical user interfaces as well as cross-platform applications that run on various software and hardware platforms such as Linux, Windows, macOS, Android or embedded systems wit ...

. Geant4 can also perform basic histogramming; it requires external analysis tools for exploiting advanced histogramming features. Since release 10.0, Geant4 implements multithreading, making use of

thread-local storage Thread-local storage (TLS) is a computer programming method that uses static or global memory local to a thread. While the use of global variables is generally discouraged in modern programming, legacy operating systems such as UNIX are designed ...

to allow for efficient generation of simulated events in parallel. Geant4 can be installed under a Unix-based operating system such as

MacOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

or under

Microsoft_Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Some high energy physics experiments using Geant4

BES III The Beijing Spectrometer III (BES III) is a particle physics experiment at the Beijing Electron–Positron Collider II (BEPC II) at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP). It is designed to study the physics of charm, charmonium, and light ha ...

at BEPCII *

BaBar Babar ( ur, ), also variously spelled as Baber, Babur, and Babor is a male given name of Pashto, and Persian language, Persian origin, and a popular male given name in Pakistan. It is generally taken in reference to the Persian language, Persian ...

and GLAST at

SLAC SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Departm ...

ATLAS An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2 (programming language), used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum collection * Color manag ...

and

LHCb The LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) experiment is one of eight particle physics detector experiments collecting data at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. LHCb is a specialized b-physics experiment, designed primarily to measure the paramet ...

at LHC,

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

COMPASS A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, fo ...

Borexino Borexino is a particle physics experiment to study low energy (sub-MeV) solar neutrinos. The detector is the world's most radio-pure liquid scintillator calorimeter. It is placed within a stainless steel sphere which holds the photomultiplier t ...

Gran Sasso Laboratory Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is the largest underground research center in the world. Situated below Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, it is well known for particle physics research by the INFN. In addition to a surface portion of the ...

DUNE A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

MINOS In Greek mythology, Minos (; grc-gre, Μίνως, ) was a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus's creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten ...

Muon g-2 Muon  − 2 (pronounced "gee minus two") is a particle physics experiment at Fermilab to measure the anomalous magnetic dipole moment of a muon to a precision of 0.14 ppm, which will be a sensitive test of the Standard Model. It migh ...

, and

Mu2e Mu2e, or the Muon-to-Electron Conversion Experiment, is a particle physics experiment at Fermilab in the US. The goal of the experiment is to identify physics beyond the Standard Model, namely, the conversion of muons to electrons without the e ...

Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been operat ...

Enriched Xenon Observatory The Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) is a particle physics experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta decay of xenon-136 at WIPP near Carlsbad, New Mexico, U.S. Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) detection would prove the Majorana ...

(EXO) *

SNO+ SNO+ is a physics experiment designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay, with secondary measurements of proton–electron–proton (''pep'') solar neutrinos, geoneutrinos from radioactive decays in the Earth, and reactor neutrinos. It ...

T2K T2K ("Tōkai, Ibaraki, Tokai to Kamioka, Gifu, Kamioka") is a particle physics experiment studying the neutrino oscillations, oscillations of the accelerator neutrinos. The experiment is conducted in Japan by the international cooperation of about 5 ...

CUORE The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE , also ) is a particle physics facility located underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Assergi, Italy. CUORE was designed primarily as a search for neutrinoless dou ...

* Dark Matter Detectors: SuperCDMS, LUX, LZ,

XENON Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...

Applications outside high energy physics

Because of its general purpose nature, Geant4 is well suited for development of computational tools for analysing interactions of particle with matter in many areas. These include:
Space applications
where it is used to study interactions between the natural space radiation environment and space hardware or astronauts; * Medical applications where interactions of radiations used for treatment are simulated. * Radiation effects in microelectronics where ionizing effects on semiconductor devices are modeled. * Nuclear physics

References

External links

* {{Authority control Experimental particle physics Free science software Free software programmed in C++ Monte Carlo particle physics software Physics software CERN software

Features

Some high energy physics experiments using Geant4

Applications outside high energy physics

See also

References

External links