Mismatch for keV to MeV energy neutrons

Physics Lists
1

Hi all,

I’m currently running some simulations of the interactions of 14 MeV neutrons with silicon.
The neutrons pass through 1.6 mm of Aluminum and then interact with 50 um of boron-doped silicon sensor.

It is my understanding that for neutrons under 20 MeV of energy the Physics Lists of choice are:

  • QGSP_BERT_HP
  • GQSP_BIC_HP

I thought that the two lists were comparable in this energy range: however, it looks like there is a mismatch of a factor ~2 for the keV to ~2 MeV energy range for the same exact simulated experiment.

chargeIntegrals
chargeIntegrals.png1198×771 42.2 KB

The BIC_HP simulation fits relatively nicely my experimental data with the same setup, but still this looks weird to me. Is this mismatch expected?

Thanks in advance!

Gabriele

2

Hello Gabriele,

Sorry for the very late answer, I only see this post today. The difference you see is natural. The Bertini cascade (BERT) has many advantages, is used for LHC experiments, but is less accurate than the Binary cascade (BIC) at low energies.

VI

3

Hello @civanch,

thank you for the answer. I’ll stick to the BIC list for future simulations.

Best,
Gabriele