MARS15 Code Developments Driven by the Intensity Frontier Needs

TL;DR

The paper discusses recent enhancements to the MARS15 Monte Carlo code, driven by the needs of high-intensity frontier projects, enabling detailed simulations across a broad energy spectrum and complex geometries.

Contribution

It introduces significant new features and modules in MARS15, including advanced particle generators, improved interaction models, and a new geometry framework, tailored for high-power accelerator applications.

Findings

Enhanced particle event generators for 0.7-12 GeV range

Implementation of EGS5 for electromagnetic showers at 1 keV-20 MeV

New DPA module for neutron interactions from eV to 150 MeV

Abstract

The MARS15(2012) is the latest version of a multi-purpose Monte-Carlo code developed since 1974 for detailed simulation of hadronic and electromagnetic cascades in an arbitrary 3-D geometry of shielding, accelerator, detector and spacecraft components with energy ranging from a fraction of an electronvolt to 100 TeV. Driven by needs of the intensity frontier projects with their Megawatt beams, e.g., ESS, FAIR and Project X, the code has been recently substantially improved and extended. These include inclusive and exclusive particle event generators in the 0.7 to 12 GeV energy range, proton inelastic interaction modeling below 20 MeV, implementation of the EGS5 code for electromagnetic shower simulation at energies from 1 keV to 20 MeV, stopping power description in compound materials, new module for DPA calculations for neutrons from a fraction of eV to 20-150 MeV, user-friendly DeTra-based method to calculate nuclide inventories, and new ROOT-based geometry.