Alberto Fasso

Stanford University | SU · SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

The interactions of cosmic rays with the solar atmosphere produce secondary particles which can reach the Earth. In this work, we present a comprehensive calculation of the yields of secondary particles such as gamma-rays, electrons, positrons, neutrons, and neutrinos performed with the fluka code. We also estimate the intensity at the Sun and the...

The interactions of cosmic rays with the solar atmosphere produce secondary particle which can reach the Earth. In this work we present a comprehensive calculation of the yields of secondary particles as gamma-rays, electrons, positrons, neutrons and neutrinos performed with the FLUKA code. We also estimate the intensity at the Sun and the fluxes a...

The 90° bremsstrahlung source terms produced in thick targets were studied using the EGS4 and FLUKA Monte Carlo codes. Calculations were performed for cylindrical targets of aluminum, iron, copper and lead. In the calculations, the electron beam energies varied from 50 MeV to 10 GeV, and the target radii varied from 0.5 to 3 Moliere units. The resu...

Reliable predictions of yields of nuclear fragments produced in electromagnetic dissociation and hadronic fragmentation of ion beams are of great practical importance in analyzing beam losses and interactions with the beam environment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN as well as for estimating radiation effects of galactic cosmic rays on t...

Monte Carlo (MC) codes are increasingly spreading in the hadrontherapy community due to their detailed description of radiation transport and interaction with matter. The suitability of a MC code for application to hadrontherapy demands accurate and reliable physical models for the description of the transport and the interaction of all components...

FLUKA is a general purpose Monte Carlo code capable of handling all radiation components from thermal energies (for neutrons) or 1 keV (for all other particles) to cosmic ray energies and can be applied in many different fields. Presently the code is maintained on Linux. The validity of the physical models implemented in FLUKA has been benchmarked...

The Monte Carlo method was invented by John von Neumann, Stanislaw Ulam, and Nicholas Metropolis (who gave it its name) and independently by Enrico Fermi. Originally, it was not a simulation method but a mathematical approach aimed at solving a multidimensional integro-differential equation by means of a stochastic process. The equation itself did...

The prediction of the structural damage to materials under irradiation is essential to evaluate consequences due to long term employment of construction materials in nuclear reactors and charged particle accelerators. The present paper describes the implementation of radiation damage effects in the particle transport code FLUKA for all particles an...

The calculation of patient-specific dose distribution can be achieved by Monte Carlo simulations or by analytical methods. In this study, FLUKA Monte Carlo code has been considered for use in nuclear medicine dosimetry. Up to now, FLUKA has mainly been dedicated to other fields, namely high energy physics, radiation protection, and hadrontherapy. W...

Clinical Monte Carlo (MC) calculations for carbon ion therapy have to provide absorbed and RBE-weighted dose. The latter is defined as the product of the dose and the relative biological effectiveness (RBE). At the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung as well as at the Heidelberg Ion Therapy Center (HIT), the RBE values are calculated acco...

Motivated by differences in the predicted fragmentation of heavy ions at energies around 5 GeV/A as employed in the event generators used by the FLUKA Monte Carlo Code [1], a set of measurements were carried out at the AGS facility at the Brookhaven National Laboratory to determine as much information as possible about the cross sections to allow h...

An overview of operational radiation protection (RP) policies and practices at high-energy electron and proton accelerators used for physics research is presented. The different radiation fields and hazards typical of these facilities are described, as well as access control and radiation control systems. The implementation of an operational RP pro...

This article is an introduction to the Monte Carlo method as used in particle transport. After a description at an elementary level of the mathematical basis of the method, the Boltzmann equation and its physical meaning are presented, followed by Monte Carlo integration and random sampling, and by a general description of the main aspects and comp...

This paper considers the historical evolution of the concept of optimisation of radiation exposures, as commonly expressed by the acronym ALARA, and discusses its application to various aspects of radiation protection at high-energy accelerators.

The Linac Coherent Light Source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (operated by Stanford University for the US Department of Energy) is the world's first hard X-ray Free Electron Laser machine. It uses high energy electrons delivered by a linac to create ultrafast and brilliant X-ray pulses that can be used as a 'high-speed' camera to obta...

The problems of dosimetry in stray radiation fields in the environment of high-energy accelerators are presented. Following an introduction into the history of physical quantities used in the acquisition of dose equivalent, the various techniques employed in the dosimetry of mixed high-energy radiation fields are described starting out with complex...

FLUKA is a general purpose Monte Carlo transport and interaction code used for fundamental physics and for a wide range of applications. These include cosmic ray physics (muons, neutrinos, extensive air showers, underground physics), both for basic research and applied studies in space and atmospheric flight dosimetry and radiation damage. A review...

FLUKA is a general purpose Monte Carlo transport and interaction code used for fundamental physics and for a wide range of applications. These include Cosmic Ray Physics (muons, neutrinos, EAS, underground physics), both for basic research and applied studies in space and atmospheric flight dosimetry and radiation damage. A review of the hadronic m...

FLUKA is a Monte-Carlo code able to simulate interaction and transport of hadrons, heavy ions and electromagnetic particles from few keV (or thermal neutron) to cosmic ray energies in whichever material. The highest priority in the design and development of the code has always been the implementation and improvement of sound and modern physical mod...

Primary GCR interact with the Earth's atmosphere originating atmospheric showers, thus giving rise to fluxes of secondary particles in the atmosphere. Electromagnetic and hadronic interactions interplay in the production of these particles, whose detection is performed by means of complementary techniques in different energy ranges and at different...

The beam delivery system for the linear collider focuses beams to nanometer sizes at its interaction point, collimates the beam halo to provide acceptable background in the detector and has a provision for state-of-the art beam instrumentation in order to reach the ILC's physics goals. This paper describes the design details and status of the basel...

The beam delivery system for the linear collider focuses beams to nanometer sizes at its interaction point, collimates the beam halo to provide acceptable background in the detector and has a provision for state-of-the-art beam instrumentation in order to reach the ILCs physics goals. this paper describes the design details and status of the baseli...

The physics model implemented inside the FLUKA code are briefly described, with emphasis on hadronic interactions. Examples of the capabilities of the code are presented including basic (thin target) and complex benchmarks. © 2007 American Institute of Physics

Astronauts’ exposure to space radiation is of high concern for long-term missions, especially for those in deep space such as possible travels to Mars. In these cases shielding optimization is a crucial issue, and simulations based on radiation transport codes and anthropomorphic model phantoms can be of great help. In this work the FLUKA Monte Car...

The linac coherent light source (LCLS) is a self-amplified spontaneous emission based free electron laser (FEL) that is being designed and built at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) by a multi-laboratory collaboration. This facility will provide ultra-short pulses of coherent X-ray radiation with the fundamental harmonic energy tunable...

Heavy-ion collisions can be simulated by means of comprehensive approaches, to include the many different reaction mechanisms which may contribute. QMD models and their relativistic extensions are examples of these approaches based on Monte Carlo techniques. In this paper are shown some results obtained by coupling a new QMD code, which describes t...

A new code, based on the Quantum Molecular Dynamics theoretical approach, has been developed and interfaced to the FLUKA evaporation/fission/Fermi break-up module. At present, this code is undergoing a series of validation tests. In this paper its predictions are compared to measured charged fragment yields and double differential neutron spectra i...

Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) models are considered viable tools to simulate the initial hot stages of heavy-ion collisions and investigate the properties of the nuclear matter equation of state. A new QMD model has been developed by scratch by our group during the last few years and recently coupled to the FLUKA fission/Fermi breakup/ evaporati...

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC will be the world's first X-ray free electron laser when it becomes operational in 2009. Pulses of X-ray laser light from LCLS will be many orders of magnitude brighter and several orders of magnitude shorter than what can be produced by other X-ray sources available in the world. These characteristics...

Human exposure to space radiation implies two kinds of risk, both stochastic and deterministic. Shielding optimisation therefore represents a crucial goal for long-term missions, especially in deep space. In this context, the use of radiation transport codes coupled with anthropomorphic phantoms allows to simulate typical radiation exposures for as...

As reported in 2005 Aerospace Conference, the FLUKA Monte Carlo code is being modified as part of NASA's Space Radiation Shielding Program for use in simulating the space radiation environment, in order to evaluate the properties of spacecraft and habitat shielding. Since the last workshop, several notable enhancements have been made to the FLUKA c...

Universal Attenuation Curves have been successfully used for many years to predict neutron dose attenuation in mazes[1,2]. These curves are called universal because they describe the attenuation as a function of an dimensionless parameter, independent from the maze size. They constitute a simple and useful alternative to more accurate estimations b...

Lunar and planetary exploration necessarily involves a need to understand the primary particle radiation and secondary albedo production for space environments such as the surface of the Moon and Mars. These surface radiation environments contain a full spectrum of particle types, including relativistic nuclei produced in heavy-ion collisions. That...

Photonuclear reactions, implemented in FLUKA about ten years ago, have opened the way to a more accurate design of electron accelerator shielding. Since then, they have been introduced also in other codes: but the FLUKA design, covering all nuclei over the whole energy range, remains still unique. The FLUKA scheme is based on several physical model...

The nuclear reaction models embedded in the FLUKA code cover hadron, ion, photon and neutrino induced nuclear interactions from energies as low as few tens of MeV up to several tens of TeV. A short description of the main physics ingredients in the FLUKA nuclear models is given, with emphasis on the intermediate energy range and on “exotic” reacti...

Simulating the space radiation environment with Monte Carlo codes, such as FLUKA, requires the ability to model the interactions of heavy ions as they penetrate spacecraft and crew member's bodies. Monte-Carlo-type transport codes use total interaction cross sections to determine when a particular type of interaction has occurred. Then, at that poi...

A description of the main features of e.m. and hadronic shower simulation models used in the FLUKA code is summarized and some recent applications are discussed. The general status of the FLUKA project is also reported.

The FLUKA Monte Carlo code has been evolving over the last several decades and is now widely used for radiation shielding calculations. In order to facilitate the use of FLUKA in dosimetry and therapy applications, supporting software has been developed to allow the direct conversion of the output files from standard CT-scans directly into a voxel...

STAC8 is a significant improvement upon its predecessor PHOTON and is a valuable analytical code for quick and conservative beamline shielding designs for synchrotron radiation (SR) facilities. In order to check the applicability, accuracy and limitations of STAC8, studies were conducted to compare the results of STAC8 with those of PHOTON with cal...

The modeling of ion transport and interactions in matter is a subject of growing interest, driven by the continuous increase of possible application fields. These include hadron therapy, dosimetry, and space missions, but there are also several issues involving fundamental research, accelerator physics, and cosmic ray physics, where a reliable desc...

The FLUKA Monte Carlo code, presently used in cosmic ray physics, contains packages to sample soft hadronic processes which are built according to the Dual Parton Model. This is a phenomenological model capable of reproducing many of the features of hadronic collisions in the non perturbative QCD regime. The basic principles of the model are summar...

This report describes the 2005 version of the Fluka particle transport code. The first part introduces the basic notions, describes the modular structure of the system, and contains an installation and beginner's guide. The second part complements this initial information with details about the various components of Fluka and how to use them. It co...

The FLUKA Monte Carlo transport code is a well-known simulation tool in High Energy Physics. FLUKA is a dynamic tool in the sense that it is being continually updated and improved by the authors. Here we review the progress achieved in the last year on the physics models. From the point of view of hadronic physics, most of the effort is still in th...

The current major detector simulation programs, i.e. GEANT3, GEANT4 and FLUKA have largely incompatible environments. This forces the physicists willing to make comparisons between the different transport Monte Carlos to develop entirely different programs. Moreover, migration from one program to the other is usually very expensive, in manpower and...

Goal of the NASA funded FLEUR project is to develop a simulation tool to predict the impact of radiation environments, in particular to evaluate the effect of shielding in space applications. The heart of this tool is the FLUKA Monte Carlo transport code which is traditionally used in related areas of research such as radio-protection and dosimetry...

The FLUKA Monte Carlo transport code is widely used for fundamental research, radioprotection and dosimetry, hybrid nuclear energy system and cosmic ray calculations. The validity of its physical models has been benchmarked against a variety of experimental data over a wide range of energies, ranging from accelerator data to cosmic ray showers in t...

Bonner sphere spectrometers (BSSs) are employed in neutron spectrometry and dosimetry since many years. Recent developments have seen the addition to a conventional BSS of one or more detectors (moderator plus thermal neutron counter) specifically designed to improve the overall response of the spectrometer to neutrons above 10 MeV. These additiona...

Comprehensive analysis of heavy ion reactions at low and intermediate energies is made using the Boltzmann Master Equation theory and a Relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model, respectively. As an example of the large variety of applications of such a study, a result concerning space radiation protection is presented.

ALICE is a general-purpose heavy-ion experiment designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC. It currently includes more than 900 physicists and senior engineers, from both nuclear and high-energy physics, from about 80 institutions in 28 countries. The experiment w...

A description of the intermediate and high energy hadronic interaction models used in the FLUKA code is given. Benchmarking against experimental data is also reported in order to validate the model performances. Finally the most recent developments and perspectives for nucleus-nucleus interactions are described together with some comparisons with e...

The main features of the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, which can deal with transport and interaction of electromagnetic and hadronic particles, are summarised. The physical models embedded in FLUKA are mentioned, as well as examples of benchmarking against experimental data. A short history of the code is provided and the following examples of applicatio...

In hadron-induced extensive air showers (EAS) low-energy collisions of secondary hadrons with nuclei of the atmosphere form the final branches of the hadronic shower skeleton. In the EAS Monte Carlo simulation program CORSIKA these interactions were treated up to now by the GHEISHA code. Recently correction patches became available for GHEISHA, ove...

The concept of Virtual Monte Carlo (VMC) has been developed by the ALICE Software Project to allow different Monte Carlo simulation programs to run without changing the user code, such as the geometry definition, the detector response simulation or input and output formats. Recently, the VMC classes have been integrated into the ROOT framework, and...

Optimum shielding of the radiation from particle accelerators requires knowledge of the attenuation characteristics of the shielding material. The most common material for shielding this radiation is concrete, which can be made using various materials of different densities as aggregates. These different concrete mixes can have very different atten...

Samples of soil, water, aluminum, copper and iron were irradiated in the stray radiation field generated by the interaction of a 28.5 GeV electron beam in a copper-dump in the Beam Dump East facility at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The specific activity induced in the samples was measured by gamma spectroscopy and other techniques. In ad...

A Monte Carlo analysis, based upon FLUKA, of neutron backscatter albedoes is presented using the ATIC balloon experiment as a study case. Preparation of the FLUKA input geometry has been accomplished by means of a new semi-automatic procedure for converting GEANT3 simulations. Resultant particle fluences (neutrons, photons, and charged particles) p...

The FLUKA Monte Carlo program is used to predict the angular distributions of the muons which originate from primary cosmic gamma rays and reach sea level. This yields the inherent angular resolution of any instrument utilizing muons to infer properties of gamma ray primaries. Various physical effects are also discussed which affect these distribut...

The fluka Monte Carlo program is used to predict the distributions of the muons which originate from primary cosmic gamma rays and reach sea level. The main result is the angular distribution of muons produced by vertical gamma rays which is necessary to predict the inherent angular resolution of any instrument utilizing muons to infer properties o...

The production of muons in atmospheric showers initiated by gamma rays with energies below 10 TeV is calculated using the Monte Carlo code FLUKA. The simulations as well as various general properties of the muons reaching sea level and of their ancestors in the cascade are discussed.

The energy region investigated extends from 1 GeV to 10 TeV. The FLUKA Monte Carlo code has been utilized to simulate the three-dimensional electromagnetic and hadronic showers caused by primary gamma cosmic rays incident at the top of the Earth's atmosphere. Mesons are produced in photonuclear interactions which eventually decay into muons. Some o...

Fast neutrons from cosmic-ray muons are an important background to underground low energy experiments. The estimate of such background is often hampered by the difficulty of measuring and calculating neutron production with sufficient accuracy. Indeed substantial disagreement exists between the different analytical calculations performed so far, wh...

The standalone FLUKA code [1] is capable of handling transport and interactions of hadronic and electromagnetic particles in any material over a wide energy range, from thermal neutrons to cosmic rays. It is intrinsecally an analogue code, but can be run in biased mode for a variety of deep penetration applications.

For historical reasons, FLUKA is best known for its hadron event generators: but the present version of the code can handle with similar or better accuracy also muons, low energy neutrons and electromagnetic effects. And, most important of all, it can simulate the transport of all these radiation components and their reciprocal interactions at the...

The FLUKA Monte Carlo program is used to calculate the effects of hadroproduction by primary gamma rays incident upon the earth's atmosphere; for the results presented in this paper, only primary angles at 0 degrees from zenith are considered. The FLUKA code is believed to be quite accurate in reproducing experimental photon hadroproduction data in...

Radioactive nuclides are produced at high-energy electron accelerators by different kinds of particle interactions with accelerator components and shielding structures. Radioactivity can also be induced in air, cooling fluids, soil and groundwater. The physical reactions involved include spallations due to the hadronic component of electromagnetic...

The future installation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the tunnel presently housing the Large Electron Positron collider (LEP) requires the dismantling of the latter after more than 10 years of operation. The decommissioning of an accelerator facility leads to the production of large amounts of waste, which in the case of an electron acceler...

A simple numerical approach has been developed to predict the relative (to 137Cs ? rays) response to LiF:Mg,Cu,P (MCP-N) thermoluminescence detectors after doses of photons in the energy range from 4 to 1000 keV. The following major factors influencing the TL detector response were taken into account: (i) mass energy absorption coefficients for LiF...

The responses of the Polish TLDs, MTS-N and MCP-N, are reported. Relative to 137Cs gamma rays, the response of MTS-N (natLiF:Mg,Ti - 0.04 cm thick) increased from 0.4 to 1.4 between X ray energies of 6 and 30 keV, and that of MCP-N (natLiF:Mg, Cu, P - 0.04 cm thick) increased from 0.2 to 1.2 between 6 and 26 keV. A mathematical model for TLD respon...

The attenuation in ordinary concrete of the total dose equivalent due to neutrons produced by 710 MeV α-particles on steel and water and by 337–390 MeV/u Ne ions on Al, Cu and Pb was calculated with the FLUKA Monte Carlo code. Experimental data (taken from the literature) of the neutron double differential distributions were utilized for the source...

In recent years, a number of systematic studies have been carried out on the design and R&D aspects of X-ray free-electron laser (XRFEL) schemes based on driving highly compressed electron bunches from a multi-GeV linac through long (30 m - 100 + m) undulators. These sources, when operated in the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE mode, feat...

In recent years, a number of systematic studies have been carried out on the design and R&D aspects of X-ray free-electron laser (XRFEL) schemes based on driving highly compressed electron bunches from a multi-GeV linac through long (30m – 100+m) undulators. These sources, when operated in the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) mode, featur...

The Monte Carlo program FLUKA was used to calculate the number of muons reaching detection level in events initiated by primary cosmic gamma ray interactions in the atmosphere. The calculation was motivated by the desire to gauge the sensitivity of arrays like that of Project GRAND to primary gamma cosmic rays while measuring single muons at detect...

The purpose of this paper is to present experimental data to demonstrate the validity of a computer-designed safety system, based on an ionization chamber, used in the detection of electron beams. The first section of the paper describes the safety system, from the radiation producing beam line to the electronic safety system monitoring modules. Th...

In recent years, comprehensive design studies have been initiated on angstrom-wavelength free-electron laser (FEL) schemes based on driving highly compressed electron bunches from a multi-GeV linac through long undulators. The output parameters of these sources, when operated in the so-called self-amplified spontaneous emission mode, include lasing...

In recent years, comprehensive design studies have been initiated on angstrom-wavelength free-electron laser (FEL) schemes based on driving highly compressed electron bunches from a multi-GeV linac through long undulators. The output parameters of these sources, when operated in the so-called self-amplified spontaneous emission mode, include lasing...

Synchrotron radiation facilities provide a unique opportunity for low-energy x-ray dosimetry studies because of the availability of monochromatic x-ray beams. Results of such studies performed at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) are described. Polish lithium fluoride thermoluminescent dosemeters (TLDs), MTS-N(LiF:Mg, Ti- 0.4 mm...

Fast wire scanners are today considered as part of standard instrumentation in high energy synchrotrons. The extension of their use to synchrotrons working at lower energies, where Coulomb scattering can be important and the transverse beam size is large, introduces new complications considering beam heating of the wire, composition of the secondar...