Geant4 Advanced Course 2024 @ CERN

14 Oct 2024, 14:00 → 18 Oct 2024, 18:40 Europe/Zurich

593/R-010 - Salle 11 (CERN)

              

Tutorial on Geant4 for users interested to improve their understanding and usage of Geant4. Appropriate for creating intermediate and advanced applications in any domain, with emphasis on topics most relevant to experiments in High Energy or Nuclear Physics. This is a tutorial course based on Geant4 version 11.2.

Lectures will cover intermediate and advanced features of Geant4 starting from the basic building blocks covered in the beginners course, interspersed with discussion sessions.

The course is expected to be of interest to users with intermediate experience in Geant4 and familiarity with the toolkit. Participants are expected to have a reasonable knowledge of C++.

The course will be held in hybrid form, with both participation in person (limited) and online using Zoom (unlimited). A link to join will been provided to participants. Participation in person will require additional formalities to enter the CERN site. 

Lectures will be held from 14:00 to 18:00 CEST (Central European Summer time).

Pre-requisites: 

• Basic knowledge of the C++ language 
• Basic knowledge of MC simulation techniques
• Overview and knowledge of the Geant4 simulation toolkit, such as that obtained following the Geant4 beginners course or equivalent knowledge
• Intermediate experience in using the Geant4 simulation toolkit, from developing a new application using Geant4 or modifying an existing Geant4 application.

Objectives: 

• Acquire deeper understanding of particle transport Monte Carlo
• Acquire additional knowledge and experience in using the Geant4 simulation toolkit

 

Monday, 14 October

14:00 → 14:10 Welcome and Practicalities

• Welcome to the course
• Practical aspects - Zoom, Mattermost, Questions, ...

Speaker: John Apostolakis (CERN)

14:10 → 14:25 Overview

• An overview of the topics covered in the course - and how they fit

Speaker: John Apostolakis (CERN)

14:25 → 15:20 Physics: particles and processes

• Particles
• Ions
• Processes
• What happens at a step
• Order of initialisation and execution
• Cuts
• How to prepare custom particle and process

Speaker: Vladimir Ivantchenko (CERN)

15:20 → 15:45 Break

15:45 → 16:50 Electromagnetic physics

• Energy loss
• Cuts per region
• Models per region
• Atomic de-excitation
• Multiple and single scattering
• Documentation for electromagnetic physics

Speaker: Vladimir Ivantchenko (CERN)

16:50 → 17:40 Hadronic Physics - I

Introduction (what is it, why we need it, what are the challenges)
Overview of the hadronic physics framework
Hadronic cross-sections
Hadronic final-state models
Hadronic data libraries

Speaker: Alberto Ribon (CERN)

17:40 → 18:00 Discussion

• EM physics
• Hadronic physics

Speakers: Alberto Ribon (CERN), John Apostolakis (CERN), Vladimir Ivantchenko (CERN)

Tuesday, 15 October

14:00 → 15:15 Geometry

• Placements, Replicated and Parameterised volumes, introduction
• Divided volumes
• Geometrical regions
• Touchables and Nested parameterisations
• Assembly volumes
• Reflected volumes
• Geometry optimization
• Parallel geometries
• Moving geometries
• CAD interface

Speaker: John Apostolakis (CERN)

15:15 → 15:35 Discussion

Geometry

Speakers: Dr Gabriele Cosmo (CERN), John Apostolakis (CERN)

15:35 → 16:00 Break

16:00 → 17:15 Magnetic Field

• Magnetic field
• Field integration and other types of field
• Steppers & Interpolation

Speaker: John Apostolakis (CERN)

17:15 → 17:35 Discussion

Magnetic Field

Speaker: John Apostolakis (CERN)

17:35 → 17:55 Homework of Day 1

Questions from exercises provided on Day 1

Wednesday, 16 October

14:00 → 14:50 Multithreading

• Why use multi-threading in Geant4
• What data is shared between threads
• User commands to control threading and regular and error output
• User code / actions in multi-threaded (MT) mode

Speaker: John Apostolakis (CERN)

14:50 → 15:30 Scoring

• Introduction to Scoring
• Command-based scoring
• Sensitive detector vs. primitive scorer
• Basic structure of detector sensitivity
• Sensitive detectors and hits

Speaker: Makoto Asai (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US))

15:30 → 16:00 Break

16:00 → 16:30 Additional User classes

• User limits
• User information classes
• Stack management

Speaker: Makoto Asai (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US))

16:30 → 16:50 Definition of UI commands

• G4UIExecutive
• Definition of custom UI commands

Speaker: Makoto Asai (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US))

16:50 → 17:15 Discussion on UI, user actions and scoring

• UI commands
• User actions
• Scoring

Speaker: Makoto Asai (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US))

17:15 → 18:00 Questions & Answers

General discussion on topics raised on Mattermost

Thursday, 17 October

14:00 → 14:50 Fast Simulation

• Fast parameterised simulation
• G4VFastSimulationModel
• G4FastSimulationManagerProcess
• Use of "Ghost" volumes
• Techniques of fast simulation

Speakers: Alberto Ribon (CERN), Anna Zaborowska (CERN)

14:50 → 15:05 Discussion

Fast Simulation

15:05 → 15:30 Break

15:30 → 16:30 Electromagnetic physics II - Optical Photons

Optical photons - generation, propagation and their physics processes

Speaker: Alexander Howard (Imperial College (GB))

16:30 → 17:40 Physics Lists

• Introduction to Physics Lists
• The Geant4 Physics List interface
• Using pre-packaged physics lists
• How to choose a physics list
• Examples

Speaker: Gunter Folger

17:40 → 18:00 Discussion

• Physics lists
• Hadronic physics

Speakers: Alberto Ribon (CERN), Gunter Folger

Friday, 18 October

14:00 → 15:00 Event Biasing

• Introduction
• Early Provided Biasing Options
• Primary Particle Biasing
• Options In Hadronic
• Geometry-based importance biasing
• Weight Window Technique
• User defined biasing
• Reverse Monte-Carlo
• Generic Biasing Scheme

Speaker: Marc Verderi (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR))

15:00 → 15:20 Discussion

• Event biasing
• Physics biasing

Speakers: Alberto Ribon (CERN), Marc Verderi (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR))

15:20 → 15:40 Break

15:40 → 16:20 Physics Biasing

Physics biasing techniques

Speaker: Alberto Ribon (CERN)

16:20 → 17:15 Hadronics physics II

• Pre-compound and de-excitation models
• Intra-nuclear cascade models (Bertini, Binary, Liege (INCL))
• String models (Fritiof, Quark Gluon String)
• Capture/stopping models
• Fission models
• Elastic process
• Neutron physics
• Ion physics

Speaker: Alberto Ribon (CERN)

17:15 → 17:45 Questions & Answers

General discussion
Answers on topics raised on Mattermost

17:45 → 17:55 Adjourn