Los Alamos Version Of The Quark-Gluon String Model Research Articles

Production of energetic light fragments in extensions of the CEM and LAQGSM event generators of the Monte Carlo transport code MCNP6

We extend the cascade-exciton model (CEM), and the Los Alamos version of the quark-gluon string model (LAQGSM), event generators of the Monte-Carlo N-particle transport code version 6 (MCNP6), to describe production of energetic light fragments (LF) heavier than 4He from various nuclear reactions induced by particles and nuclei at energies up to about 1 TeV/nucleon. In these models, energetic LF can be produced via Fermi break-up, preequilibrium emission, and coalescence of cascade particles. Initially, we study several variations of the Fermi break-up model and choose the best option for these models. Then, we extend the modified exciton model (MEM) used by these codes to account for a possibility of multiple emission of up to 66 types of particles and LF (up to 28Mg) at the preequilibrium stage of reactions. Then, we expand the coalescence model to allow coalescence of LF from nucleons emitted at the intranuclear cascade stage of reactions and from lighter clusters, up to fragments with mass numbers A < 8, in the case of CEM, and A < 13, in the case of LAQGSM. Next, we modify MCNP6 to allow calculating and outputting spectra of LF and heavier products with arbitrary mass and charge numbers. The improved version of CEM is implemented into MCNP6. Finally, we test the improved versions of CEM, LAQGSM, and MCNP6 on a variety of measured nuclear reactions. The modified codes give an improved description of energetic LF from particle- and nucleus-induced reactions; showing a good agreement with a variety of available experimental data. They have an improved predictive power compared to the previous versions and can be used as reliable tools in simulating applications involving such types of reactions.

MCNP6 fragmentation of light nuclei at intermediate energies

Fragmentation reactions induced on light target nuclei by protons and light nuclei of energies around 1GeV/nucleon and below are studied with the latest Los Alamos Monte Carlo transport code MCNP6 and with its cascade-exciton model (CEM) and Los Alamos version of the quark-gluon string model (LAQGSM) event generators, version 03.03, used as stand-alone codes. Such reactions are involved in different applications, like cosmic-ray-induced single event upsets (SEU׳s), radiation protection, and cancer therapy with proton and ion beams, among others; therefore, it is important that MCNP6 simulates them as well as possible. CEM and LAQGSM assume that intermediate-energy fragmentation reactions on light nuclei occur generally in two stages. The first stage is the intranuclear cascade (INC), followed by the second, Fermi breakup disintegration of light excited residual nuclei produced after the INC. Both CEM and LAQGSM account also for coalescence of light fragments (complex particles) up to 4He from energetic nucleons emitted during INC. We investigate the validity and performance of MCNP6, CEM, and LAQGSM in simulating fragmentation reactions at intermediate energies and discuss possible ways of further improving these codes.

Preequilibrium Emission of Light Fragments in Spallation Reactions

The ability to describe production of light fragments (LF) is important for many applications, such as cosmic-ray-induced single event upsets (SEUs), radiation protection, and cancer therapy with proton and heavy-ion beams. The cascade-exciton model (CEM) and the Los Alamos version of the quark-gluon string model (LAQGSM) event generators in the LANL transport code MCNP6, describe quite well the spectra of fragments with sizes up to 4He across a broad range of target masses and incident energies (up to ∼ 5 GeV for CEM and up to ∼ 1 TeV/A for LAQGSM). However, they do not predict the high-energy tails of LF spectra heavier than 4He well. Most LF with energies above several tens of MeV are emitted during the precompound stage of a reaction. The current versions of our event generators do not account for precompound emission of LF larger than 4He. The aim of our work is to generalize the precompound model to include such processes, leading to increased predictive power of LF production. Extending the model in this way provides preliminary results that have much better agreement with experimental data.

Production of Energetic Light Fragments in Spallation Reactions

Different reaction mechanisms contribute to the production of light fragments (LF) from nuclear reactions. Available models cannot accurately predict emission of LF from arbitrary reactions. However, the emission of LF is important for many applications, such as cosmic-ray-induced single event upsets, radiation protection, and cancer therapy with proton and heavy-ion beams, to name just a few. The cascade-exciton model (CEM) and the Los Alamos version of the quark-gluon string model (LAQGSM), as implemented in the CEM03.03 and LAQGSM03.03 event generators used in the Los Alamos transport code MCNP6, describe quite well the spectra of fragments with sizes up to 4He across a broad range of target masses and incident energies. However, they do not predict high-energy tails for LF heavier than 4He. The standard versions of CEM and LAQGSM do not account for preequilibrium emission of LF larger than 4He. The aim of our work is to extend the preequilibrium model to include such processes. We do this by including the emission of fragments heavier than 4He at the preequilibrium stage, and using an improved version of the Fermi Break-up model, providing improved agreement with various experimental data.

Validation and verification of MCNP6 against intermediate and high-energy experimental data and results by other codes

MCNP6, the latest and most advanced LANL transport code representing a recent merger of MCNP5 and MCNPX, has been Validated and Verified (V&V) against a variety of intermediate and high-energy experimental data and against results by different versions of MCNPX and other codes. In the present work, we V&V MCNP6 using mainly the latest modifications of the Cascade-Exciton Model (CEM) and of the Los Alamos version of the Quark-Gluon String Model (LAQGSM) event generators CEM03.02 and LAQGSM03.03. We found that MCNP6 describes reasonably well various reactions induced by particles and nuclei at incident energies from 18 MeV to about 1 TeV per nucleon measured on thin and thick targets and agrees very well with similar results obtained with MCNPX and calculations by CEM03.02, LAQGSM03.01 (03.03), INCL4 + ABLA, and Bertini INC + Dresner evaporation, EPAX, ABRABLA, HIPSE, and AMD, used as stand alone codes. Most of several computational bugs and more serious physics problems observed in MCNP6/X during our V&V have been fixed; we continue our work to solve all the known problems before MCNP6 is distributed to the public.

Fragmentation ofN14,O16,Ne20, andMg24nuclei at 290 to 1000 MeV/nucleon

We report fragmentation cross sections measured at 0 deg for beams of 14-N, 16-O, 20-Ne, and 24-Mg ions, at energies ranging from 290 MeV/nucleon to 1000 MeV/nucleon. Beams were incident on targets of C, CH2, Al, Cu, Sn, and Pb, with the C and CH2 target data used to obtain hydrogen-target cross sections. Using methods established in earlier work, cross sections obtained with both large-acceptance and small-acceptance detectors are extracted from the data and when necessary corrected for acceptance effects. The large-acceptance data yield cross sections for fragments with charges approximately half of the beam charge and above, with minimal corrections. Cross sections for lighter fragments are obtained from small-acceptance spectra, with more significant, model-dependent corrections that account for the fragment angular distributions. Results for both charge-changing and fragment production cross sections are compared to the predictions of the Los Alamos version of the Quark Gluon String Model (LAQGSM) as well as the NUCFRG2 and PHITS models. For all beams and targets, cross sections for fragments as light as He are compared to the models. Estimates of multiplicity-weighted helium production cross sections are obtained from the data and compared to PHITS and LAQGSM predictions. Summary statistics show that the level of agreement between data and predictions is slightly better for PHITS than for either NUCFRG2 or LAQGSM.

CEM03 and LAQGSM03—new modeling tools for nuclear applications

An improved version of the Cascade-Exciton Model (CEM) of nuclear reactions realized in the code CEM2k and the Los Alamos version of the Quark-Gluon String Model (LAQGSM) have been developed recently at LANL to describe reactions induced by particles and nuclei for a number of applications. Our CEM2k and LAQGSM merged with the GEM2 evaporation/fission code by Furihata have predictive powers comparable to other modern codes and describe many reactions better than other codes; therefore both our codes can be used as reliable event generators in transport codes for applications. During the last year, we have made a significant improvements to the intranuclear cascade parts of CEM2k and LAQGSM, and have extended LAQGSM to describe photonuclear reactions at energies to 10 GeV and higher. We have produced in this way improved versions of our codes, CEM03.01 and LAQGSM03.01. For special studies, we have also merged our two codes with the GEMINI code by Charity and with the SMM code of Botvina. We present a brief description of our codes and show illustrative results obtained with CEM03.01 and LAQGSM03.01 for different reactions compared with predictions by other models, as well as examples of using our codes as modeling tools for nuclear applications.