Cosmogenic Nuclei Production Rate on the Lunar Surface

TL;DR

This paper presents a Geant4-based physical model simulating cosmic ray interactions with the lunar surface to accurately predict cosmogenic nuclei production rates, validated against Apollo 15 data, and applicable to lunar and extraterrestrial samples.

Contribution

The study introduces a new Geant4 simulation model for cosmogenic nuclei production, validated with Apollo 15 data, and adaptable for lunar samples and other celestial objects.

Findings

Model accurately predicts $^{10}$Be and $^{26}$Al production rates.

Simulation results agree well with measured data.

Model can be extended to meteorites and Earth's atmosphere.

Abstract

A physical model of Geant4-based simulation of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) particles interaction with the lunar surface matter has been developed to investigate the production rate of cosmogenic nuclei. In this model the GCRs, mainly very high energy protons and $\alpha$ particles, bombard the surface of the Moon and produce many secondary particles such as protons and neutrons. The energies of proton and neutron at different depths are recorded and saved into ROOT files, and the analytical expressions for the differential proton and neutron fluxes are obtained through the best-fit procedure under the ROOT software. To test the validity of this model, we calculate the production rates of long-lived nuclei $^{10}$Be and $^{26}$Al in the Apollo 15 long drill core by combining the above differential fluxes and the newly evaluated spallation reaction cross sections. Numerical results show that the theoretical production rates agree quite well with the measured data. It means that this model works well. Therefore, it can be expected that this model can be used to investigate the cosmogenic nuclei in lunar samples returned by Chinese lunar exploration program and can be extended to study other objects, such as the meteorites and the Earth's atmosphere.