Comparison of proton shower developments in the BGO calorimeter of the Dark Matter Particle Explorer between GEANT4 and FLUKA simulations

TL;DR

This study compares proton shower simulations in the DAMPE detector's BGO calorimeter using GEANT4 and FLUKA to evaluate uncertainties in cosmic ray analysis.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of two simulation software packages for proton shower development in DAMPE's calorimeter, highlighting key differences and uncertainties.

Findings

Differences in shower profiles between GEANT4 and FLUKA

Estimation of uncertainties in proton spectral analysis

Insights into simulation accuracy for cosmic ray studies

Abstract

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a satellite-borne detector for high-energy cosmic rays and $\gamma$-rays. To fully understand the detector performance and obtain reliable physical results, extensive simulations of the detector are necessary. The simulations are particularly important for the data analysis of cosmic ray nuclei, which relies closely on the hadronic and nuclear interactions of particles in the detector material. Widely adopted simulation softwares include the GEANT4 and FLUKA, both of which have been implemented for the DAMPE simulation tool. Here we describe the simulation tool of DAMPE and compare the results of proton shower properties in the calorimeter from the two simulation softwares. Such a comparison gives an estimate of the most significant uncertainties of our proton spectral analysis.