The processes category contains the implementations of particle transportation
and physical interactions. All physics process conform to the basic interface
G4VProcess
, but different approaches have been developed for
the detailed design of each sub-category.
For the decay sub-category, the decays of all long-lived, unstable particles are handled by a single process. This process gets the step length from the mean life of the particle. The generation of decay products requires a knowledge of the branching ratios and/or data distributions stored in the particle class.
The electromagnetic sub-category is divided further into the following packages:
standard
: handling basic properties for electron,
positron, photon and hadron interactions,
lowenergy
: providing alternative models extended down
to lower energies than the standard package,
dna
: providing DNA physics and chemistry simulation,
highenergy
: providing models for rare high energy
processes,
muons
: handling muon interactions and energy
loss propagator,
adjoint
: implementing reverse Monte Carlo approach,
xrays
: providing specific code for x-ray physics,
optical
: providing specific code for optical photons,
utils
: collecting utility classes used by the above
packages.
It provides the features of openness and extensibilty resulting from the use of object-oriented technology; alternative physics models, obeying the same process abstract interface, are often available for a given type of interaction.
For hadronic physics, an additional set of implementation frameworks was added to accommodate the large number of possible modeling approaches. The top-level framework provides the basic interface to other Geant4 categories. It satisfies the most general use-case for hadronic shower simulations, namely to provide inclusive cross sections and final state generation. The frameworks are then refined for increasingly specific use-cases, building a hierarchy in which each level implements the interface specified by the level above it. A given hadronic process may be implemented at any one of these levels. For example, the process may be implemented by one of several models, and each of the models may in turn be implemented by several sub-models at the lower framework levels.
The hadronic sub-category is divided into the following packages:
management
: providing the top level hadronic
process classes;
cross_sections
: providing inelastic and elastic
cross sections for hadron-nucleon, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus
interactions; it also contains inelastic cross sections for
gamma- and lepto-nuclear interactions;
models
: providing hadronic final-state models;
there is a further sub-level, corresponding to each model
(abla, abrasion binary_cascade, cascade, coherent_elastic,
de_excitation, em_dissociation, fission, im_r_matrix, inclxx,
lend, lepto_nuclear, management, parton_string, pre_equilibrium,
qmd, quasi_elastic, radioactive_decay, rpg, theo_high_energy,
util
);
processes
: providing the in-flight hadronic physics
processes: inelastic, elastic, capture and fission;
stopping
: providing the nuclear capture of hadrons
and muon at rest;
util
: collecting utility classes used by the above
packages.
The object-oriented design of the generic physics process G4VProcess
and its relation to the process manager is shown in
Figure 2.5.
Figure 2.6 shows how specific physics processes are
related to G4VProcess
.
The electromagnetic (EM) processes of Geant4 follow the basic interfaces:
G4VEnergyLossProcess
;
G4VEmProcess
;
G4VMultipleScattering
.
The class diagram is shown in Figure 2.7.
These base classes provide all management work of initialisation
of processes, creation and filling of physics tables, and generic
run-time actions. Concrete process classes are responsible for the
initialisation of parameters and defining the set of models
for the process.
In some specific cases these interfaces are not applicable
and the high level interface G4VProcess
is used.
Concrete physics models are implemented via EM model interfaces:
G4VEmModel
;
G4VMscModel
.
In the majority of use-cases when new EM physics is needed, it is enough
to create only a new model class and use it in the existing EM process class.
A new model may be added to an existing process using
AddEmModel(G4int, G4VEmModel*, G4Region*)
method.
The class diagram is shown in Figure 2.8.
The hadronic physics of Geant4 has been designed to allow three basic types of modeling: data-driven, parametrisation-driven, and theory-driven. Five implementation frameworks have been used to allow great flexibility in these modeling approaches. An overview of the first two framework levels will be given here (for a wider and more detailed coverage please refer to the next Chapter).
The top-level framework defines the hadronic processes, and provides
the basic interface to other Geant4 categories.
All processes have a common base-class G4VProcess
,
from which a set of specialised classes are derived. Two of them are
used as base classes for hadronic processes for particles
(G4VDiscreteProcess
), and for processes like
radioactive decay that can be both in-flight or at-rest
(G4VRestDiscreteProcess
).
Each of these classes declares two types of methods: one for calculating
the time to interaction (for at-rest processes) or the physical interaction
length (for in-flight processes), allowing tracking to request the
information necessary to decide on the process responsible for final-state
production.
Note on at-rest processes: starting with Geant4 version 9.6
-
when the Bertini and Fritiof final-state models have been extended
down to zero kinetic energy and used also for simulating the nuclear capture
at-rest - the at-rest processes derive from G4HadronicProcess
,
hence from G4VDiscreteProcess
, instead than from
G4VRestProcess
as in the initial design of at-rest processes.
This requires some adaptation a discrete process to handle
an at-rest one using top level interface G4VProcess
.
A different solution, under consideration but not yet
implemented, would be instead to have G4HadronicProcess
inheriting from G4VRestDiscreteProcess
: in this way,
G4HadronicProcess
, and therefore any theory-driven
final-state model, could be deployed for any kind of hadronic process,
including capture-at-rest processes and radioactive decays.
The class diagram is shown in Figure 2.9.
Whenever possible, it is preferable to add any new hadronic physics to Geant4
in terms of a model, and assign the model to an existing process, rather than
develop a new, specific process. However, in some cases, a directly
implemented hadronic process may be necessary. In these cases, the new
process must derive from G4HadronicProcess
and the
following three methods must be implemented:
virtual G4VParticleChange* PostStepDoIt(const G4Track&, const G4Step&) , virtual G4bool IsApplicable(const G4ParticleDefinition&) , and G4double GetMeanFreePath(const G4Track& aTrack, G4double, G4ForceCondition*) .
More details on these methods will be provided in the next Chapter.
At the next level of abstraction, only processes that occur for particles in flight are considered. For these, the main design requirement is to treat cross sections and the final-state models (i.e. the models responsible for the production of the secondaries) independently, so that it is possible to change cross section while keeping a particular final-state model, or, vice versa, to keep a given cross section while replacing the final-state model. Moroever, a set of cross sections can be used for a single hadronic process to cover a wide kinematical range (e.g. from thermal energies up to several tera-electronvolts of the projectile kinetic energy). Similarly, for the same reason, a set of different final-state models can be used for a single hadronic process, allowing the overlapping between two models in an interval of the projectile kinetic energy, to insure a smooth transition between these models.
The class diagram for hadronic cross-sections is shown in Figure 2.10 and in Figure 2.11 for final-state models.
Figure 2.10. Second level implementation framework of the hadronic category of Geant4: cross-section aspect.
Figure 2.11. Second level implementation framework of the hadronic category of Geant4: final-state production aspect.
Each hadronic process is derived from G4HadronicProcess
,
which holds a list of ``cross section data sets''. All cross section data set
classes are derived from the abstract class G4VCrossSectionDataSet
.
The process stores and retrieves the data sets through a data store that acts
like a FILO (First-In-Last-Out) stack.
Details on how to write a new hadronic cross section set will be provided
in the next Chapter.
The G4HadronicProcess
class provides a registration service
for classes deriving from G4HadronicInteraction
, and
delegates final-state production to the applicable model.
Models inheriting from G4HadronicInteraction
can be
restricted in applicability in projectile type and energy, and can be
activated/deactivated for individual materials and elements.
Details on how to write a new hadronic final-state model will be provided
in the next Chapter.