Benchmarks and applications of the nuclear deexcitation event generator NucDeEx

TL;DR

This paper introduces NucDeEx, an open-source nuclear deexcitation event generator, which improves predictions of neutron emissions in neutrino interactions through updated modeling and benchmarking against experimental data.

Contribution

The paper presents NucDeEx, a new general-purpose nuclear deexcitation generator with improved low-lying state treatment and extensive benchmarking, enhancing neutrino interaction simulations.

Findings

NucDeEx better reproduces experimental data.

Benchmarking shows improved accuracy over existing generators.

Application to NEUT and Geant4 demonstrates versatility.

Abstract

Neutron multiplicity is a key observable in recent neutrino experiments that can enhance the sensitivity of various neutrino physics searches. Nuclear deexcitation plays a significant role in neutron emissions associated with neutrino-nucleus interactions. Therefore, precise prediction of this process is essential. To address this need, a general-purpose nuclear deexcitation event generator \textsc{NucDeEx} was developed and released as an open-source package. The treatment of low-lying discrete excited states was updated to better reproduce experimental data. Benchmarks were conducted using existing nuclear deexcitation event generators and experimental data. Application to other simulators, neutrino event generator \textsc{NEUT} and general particle simulation tool \textsc{Geant4}, are also presented.