Extending Geant4 Parallelism with External Libraries (MPI, TBB) and Its Use on HPC Resources

With Geant4 Version 10.0, released in December 2013, one of the most widely used Monte-Carlo codes has been ported to take full advantage of multi- and many-core CPUs thanks to the introduction of event-level parallelism via multithreading. In this paper we review recent developments to allow for a better integration of parallel Geant4 jobs with external libraries. We have chosen to develop examples using the popular Intel Threading Building Block (for short TBB) as an alternative parallelization approach to the native Geant4 POSIX. To simplify the scaling of a Geant4 application across nodes on a cluster we are improving the support of MPI in Geant4. In particular it is now possible to run an hybrid MPI/MT application that uses MPI to scale across nodes and MT to scale across cores. %The recent developments allow users to easily implement parallel application resources that scale on a very large number of nodes and cores typical of HPC resources.Comment: conferenc

Multi-threaded Geant4 on the Xeon-Phi with Complex High-Energy Physics Geometry

To study the performance of multi-threaded Geant4 for high-energy physics experiments, an application has been developed which generalizes and extends previous work. A highly-complex detector geometry is used for benchmarking on an Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor. In addition, an implementation of parallel I/O based on Intel SCIF and ROOT technologies is incorporated and studied

The PENELOPE Physics Models and Transport Mechanics. Implementation into Geant4

[EN] A translation of the penelope physics subroutines to C++, designed as an extension of the Geant4 toolkit, is presented. The Fortran code system penelope performs Monte Carlo simulation of coupled electron-photon transport in arbitrary materials for a wide energy range, nominally from 50 eV up to 1 GeV. Penelope implements the most reliable interaction models that are currently available, limited only by the required generality of the code. In addition, the transport of electrons and positrons is simulated by means of an elaborate class II scheme in which hard interactions (involving deflection angles or energy transfers larger than pre-defined cutoffs) are simulated from the associated restricted differential cross sections. After a brief description of the interaction models adopted for photons and electrons/positrons, we describe the details of the class-II algorithm used for tracking electrons and positrons. The C++ classes are adapted to the specific code structure of Geant4. They provide a complete description of the interactions and transport mechanics of electrons/positrons and photons in arbitrary materials, which can be activated from the G4ProcessManager to produce simulation results equivalent to those from the original penelope programs. The combined code, named PenG4, benefits from the multi-threading capabilities and advanced geometry and statistical tools of Geant4.Financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades/Agencia Estatal de Investigacion/European Regional Development Fund, European Union, (projects nos. RTI2018-098117-B-C21 and RTI2018-098117-B-C22) is gratefully aknowledged. The work of VA was supported by the program Ayudas para la contratacion de personal investigador en formacion de caracter predoctoral, programa VALi+d under grant number ACIF/2018/148 from the Conselleria dEducacio of the Generalitat Valenciana and the Fondo Social Europeo (FSE). VG acknowledges partial support from FEDER/MCIyU-AEI under grant FPA2017-84543-P, by the Severo Ochoa Excellence Program under grant SEV-2014-0398 and by Generalitat Valenciana through the project PROMETEO/2019/087.Asai, M.; Cortés-Giraldo, MA.; Giménez-Alventosa, V.; Giménez Gómez, V.; Salvat, F. (2021). The PENELOPE Physics Models and Transport Mechanics. Implementation into Geant4. Frontiers in Physics. 9:1-20. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2021.738735S120

The OVAL experiment: A new experiment to measure vacuum magnetic birefringence using high repetition pulsed magnets

A new experiment to measure vacuum magnetic birefringence (VMB), the OVAL experiment, is reported. We developed an original pulsed magnet that has a high repetition rate and applies the strongest magnetic field among VMB experiments. The vibration isolation design and feedback system enable the direct combination of the magnet with a Fabry-P\'erot cavity. To ensure the searching potential, a calibration measurement with dilute nitrogen gas and a prototype search for vacuum magnetic birefringence are performed. Based on the results, a strategy to observe vacuum magnetic birefringence is reported.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure

The PENELOPE physics models and transport mechanics. Implementation into Geant4

A translation of the penelope physics subroutines to C++, designed as an extension of the Geant4 toolkit, is presented. The Fortran code system penelope performs Monte Carlo simulation of coupled electron-photon transport in arbitrary materials for a wide energy range, nominally from 50 eV up to 1 GeV. Penelope implements the most reliable interaction models that are currently available, limited only by the required generality of the code. In addition, the transport of electrons and positrons is simulated by means of an elaborate class II scheme in which hard interactions (involving deflection angles or energy transfers larger than pre-defined cutoffs) are simulated from the associated restricted differential cross sections. After a brief description of the interaction models adopted for photons and electrons/positrons, we describe the details of the class-II algorithm used for tracking electrons and positrons. The C++ classes are adapted to the specific code structure of Geant4. They provide a complete description of the interactions and transport mechanics of electrons/positrons and photons in arbitrary materials, which can be activated from the G4ProcessManager to produce simulation results equivalent to those from the original penelope programs. The combined code, named PenG4, benefits from the multi-threading capabilities and advanced geometry and statistical tools of Geant4

Improvements in Monte Carlo Simulation of Large Electron Fields

Two Monte Carlo systems, EGSnrc and Geant4, were used to calculate dose distributions in large electron fields used in radiotherapy. Source and geometry parameters were adjusted to match calculated results with measurement. Both codes were capable of accurately reproducing the measured dose distributions of the 6 electron beams available on the accelerator. Depth penetration was matched to 0.1 cm. Depth dose curves generally agreed to 2% in the build-up region, although there is an additional 2-3% experimental uncertainty in this region. Dose profiles matched to 2% at the depth of maximum dose in the central region of the beam, out to the point of the profile where the dose begins to fall rapidly. A 3%/3mm match was obtained outside the central region except for the 6 MeV beam, where dose differences reached 5%. The discrepancy observed in the bremsstrahlung tail in published results that used EGS4 is no longer evident. The different systems required different source energies, incident beam angles, thicknesses of the exit window and primary foils, and distance between the primary and secondary foil. These results underscore the requirement for an experimental benchmark of electron scatter for beam energies and foils relevant to radiotherapy

High Energy Physics Forum for Computational Excellence: Working Group Reports (I. Applications Software II. Software Libraries and Tools III. Systems)

Computing plays an essential role in all aspects of high energy physics. As computational technology evolves rapidly in new directions, and data throughput and volume continue to follow a steep trend-line, it is important for the HEP community to develop an effective response to a series of expected challenges. In order to help shape the desired response, the HEP Forum for Computational Excellence (HEP-FCE) initiated a roadmap planning activity with two key overlapping drivers -- 1) software effectiveness, and 2) infrastructure and expertise advancement. The HEP-FCE formed three working groups, 1) Applications Software, 2) Software Libraries and Tools, and 3) Systems (including systems software), to provide an overview of the current status of HEP computing and to present findings and opportunities for the desired HEP computational roadmap. The final versions of the reports are combined in this document, and are presented along with introductory material.Comment: 72 page

The Nature of Ultra-Luminous Compact X-Ray Sources in Nearby Spiral Galaxies

Studies were made of ASCA spectra of seven ultra-luminous compact X-ray sources (ULXs) in nearby spiral galaxies; M33 X-8 (Takano et al. 1994), M81 X-6 (Fabbiano 1988b; Kohmura et al. 1994; Uno 1997), IC 342 Source 1 (Okada et al. 1998), Dwingeloo 1 X-1 (Reynolds et al. 1997), NGC 1313 Source B (Fabbiano & Trinchieri 1987; Petre et al. 1994), and two sources in NGC 4565 (Mizuno et al. 1999). With the 0.5--10 keV luminosities in the range 10^{39-40} ergs/s, they are thought to represent a class of enigmatic X-ray sources often found in spiral galaxies. For some of them, the ASCA data are newly processed, or the published spectra are reanalyzed. For others, the published results are quoted. The ASCA spectra of all these seven sources have been described successfully with so called multi-color disk blackbody (MCD) emission arising from optically-thick standard accretion disks around black holes. Except the case of M33 X-8, the spectra do not exhibit hard tails. For the source luminosities not to exceed the Eddington limits, the black holes are inferred to have rather high masses, up to ~100 solar masses. However, the observed innermost disk temperatures of these objects, Tin = 1.1--1.8 keV, are too high to be compatible with the required high black-hole masses, as long as the standard accretion disks around Schwarzschild black holes are assumed. Similarly high disk temperatures are also observed from two Galactic transients with superluminal motions, GRO 1655-40 and GRS 1915+105. The issue of unusually high disk temperature may be explained by the black hole rotation, which makes the disk get closer to the black hole, and hence hotter.Comment: submitted to ApJ, December 199