Nuclear reaction model for deuterons below 150 MeV/n in FLUKA

Abstract

The lack of a dedicated model for nuclear reactions of deuterons at energies below 150 MeV/n has been a long-standing shortcoming of the general-purpose radiation-transport code FLUKA, preventing its use in applications either driven by deuteron beams or where reinteracting secondary deuterons play a significant role. A dedicated modelling effort has been undertaken to overcome this limitation. In this contribution, the essential ingredients of FLUKA’s novel model for low-energy deuteron nuclear inelastic interactions are briefly described, including nucleon stripping to the continuum, nucleon transfer to discrete states, and elastic break-up. The resulting model has been extensively benchmarked against experimental data prior to its inclusion in FLUKA v4-2.0.