QGSM development for spallation reactions modeling

Abstract

The growing interest in spallation neutron sources, accelerator-driven systems, R&D of rare isotope beams, and development of external beam radiation therapy necessitated the improvement of nuclear reaction models for both stand-alone codes for the analysis of nuclear reactions and event generators within the Monte Carlo transport systems for calculations of interactions of high-energy particles with matter in a wide range of energy and in arbitrary 3D geometry of multicomponent targets. The exclusive approach to the description of nuclear reactions is the most effective for detailed calculation of inelastic interactions with atomic nuclei. It provides the correct description of particle production, single- and double-differential spectra, recoil, and fission product yields. This approach has been realized in the Quark Gluon String Model (QGSM) for nuclear reactions induced by photons, hadrons, and high energy heavy ions. In this article, improved versions of the QGSM model and a corresponding code have been developed tested and bench marked against experimental data for neutron production in spallation reactions on thin and thick targets in the energy range from a few MeV to several GeV/nucleon.