A GEANT4 Monte-Carlo Simulation Code for precision beta spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper presents a detailed GEANT4 Monte-Carlo simulation code designed to accurately model effects influencing beta radiation emission patterns, crucial for high-precision nuclear beta decay experiments.

Contribution

A new GEANT4-based simulation method that accounts for geometric, magnetic, and scattering effects in beta spectroscopy experiments, enhancing measurement accuracy.

Findings

Simulation code effectively models beta emission effects

Improves precision in beta asymmetry measurements

Applicable to various polarization techniques

Abstract

The measurement of the beta asymmetry parameter in nuclear beta decay is a potentially very sensitive tool to search for non V-A components in the charge-changing weak interaction. To reach the required precision (percent level) all effects that modify the emission pattern of the beta radiation, i.e. the geometry of the setup, the effect of the magnetic field on the trajectories of beta particles as well as (back)scattering in the source, on the sample holder and on the detector, have to be correctly taken into account in the analysis of the data. A thorough study of these effects and a new method based on detailed GEANT4 Monte-Carlo simulations that was developed for this purpose is presented here. The code was developed for beta asymmetry measurements by means of the Low Temperature Nuclear Orientation (LTNO) method, but can in principle be generalized to other experimental setups using other polarization techniques.