- Geant4
Infobox_Software | name = Geant4
developer = Geant4 Collaboration
latest_release_version = 9.1 p03
latest_release_date =September 19 ,2008
operating_system =Cross-platform
genre =Computational physics
license = [http://cern.ch/geant4/license/LICENSE.html Geant4 Software License]
website = [http://geant4.org/]Geant4 (for GEometry ANd Tracking) is a platform for "the
simulation of the passage of particles throughmatter ," usingMonte Carlo methods . It is the successor of the GEANT series of software toolkits developed byCERN , and the first to useObject oriented programming (inC++ ). Its development, maintenance and user support are taken care by the international [http://geant4.org/ Geant4 Collaboration] . Application areas includehigh energy physics and nuclearexperiment s, medical, accelerator andspace physics 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 30 ,2006 ), no specific software license for its use existed; Geant4 is now provided under the [http://cern.ch/geant4/license/LICENSE.html Geant4 Software License] .Geant4 features
Geant4 includes facilities for handling
geometry , tracking, detector response, run management, visualization anduser interface . For many physics simulations, this means less time need 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 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 possibleinteraction s and decay 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", includingOpenGL , and a familiar "user interface", based onBash .Geant4 can also optionally perform histogramming, but it requires external software that implements the AIDA framework in order to do so.
= Some high energy physics experiments using Geant4 =* BaBar and GLAST at
SLAC
* ATLAS, CMS and LHCb at LHC,CERN
* Borexino [http://borex.lngs.infn.it] at Gran Sasso Laboratory
*MINOS atFermilab
*EXO Geant4 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 [http://geant4.esa.int] 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.See also
*
CLHEP andFreeHEP , libraries for high energy physicsExternal links
* [http://geant4.org/ Official website]
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