MCNP6 simulation of light and medium nuclei fragmentation at intermediate energies

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the MCNP6 simulation code and its event generators CEM03.03 and LAQGSM03.03 for modeling light and medium nuclei fragmentation at around 1 GeV/nucleon, focusing on their assumptions, performance, and potential improvements.

Contribution

It provides a detailed assessment of MCNP6, CEM, and LAQGSM in simulating intermediate-energy nuclear fragmentation reactions on light and medium nuclei.

Findings

MCNP6 and its generators effectively simulate fragmentation at intermediate energies.

The two-stage reaction model (INC followed by Fermi breakup) is validated.

Suggestions for improving simulation accuracy are discussed.

Abstract

Fragmentation reactions induced on light and medium nuclei by protons and light nuclei of energies around 1 GeV/nucleon and below are studied with the Los Alamos transport code MCNP6 and with its CEM03.03 and LAQGSM03.03 event generators. CEM and LAQGSM assume that intermediate-energy fragmentation reactions on light nuclei occur generally in two stages. The first stage is the intranuclear cascade (INC), followed by the second, Fermi breakup disintegration of light excited residual nuclei produced after the INC. CEM and LAQGSM account also for coalescence of light fragments (complex particles) up to 4He from energetic nucleons emitted during INC. We investigate the validity and performance of MCNP6, CEM, and LAQGSM in simulating fragmentation reactions at intermediate energies and discuss possible ways of further improving these codes