geant4

This example simulates a simple Sampling Calorimeter setup. To demonstrate several possible ways of data scoring, the example is provided in four variants: %B4a, %B4b, %B4c, %B4d. (See also examples/extended/electromagnetic/TestEm3 or hadronic/Hadr05)

GEOMETRY DEFINITION

The geometry is constructed in B4::DetectorConstruction class (see also \link B4c::DetectorConstruction B4c \endlink, \link B4d::DetectorConstruction B4d \endlink variants). The calorimeter is a box made of a given number of layers. A layer consists of an absorber plate and of a detection gap. The layer is replicated.

Four parameters define the geometry of the calorimeter : - the thickness of an absorber plate, - the thickness of a gap, - the number of layers, and - the transverse size of the calorimeter (the entrance face is a square).

In addition, a global, uniform, and transverse magnetic field can be applied using G4GlobalMagFieldMessenger, instantiated in B4::DetectorConstruction::ConstructSDandField() (see also \link B4c::DetectorConstruction::ConstructSDandField() B4c \endlink, \link B4d::DetectorConstruction::ConstructSDandField() B4d \endlink variants) with a non zero field value, or via interactive commands. For example:

/globalField/setValue 0.2 0 0 tesla

        |<----layer 0---------->|<----layer 1---------->|<----layer 2---------->|
        |                       |                       |                       |
        ==========================================================================
        ||              |       ||              |       ||              |       ||
        ||              |       ||              |       ||              |       ||
 beam   ||   absorber   |  gap  ||   absorber   |  gap  ||   absorber   |  gap  ||
======> ||              |       ||              |       ||              |       ||
        ||              |       ||              |       ||              |       ||
        ==========================================================================

A more general version of this geometry can be found in: examples/extended/electromagnetic/TestEm3 or hadronic/Hadr05 where all the geometry parameters, the absorber and gap materials can be modified interactively via the commands defined in the DetectorMessenger class.

PHYSICS LIST

The particle's type and the physic processes which will be available in this example are set in the FTFP_BERT physics list. This physics list requires data files for electromagnetic and hadronic processes. See more on installation of the datasets in Geant4 Installation Guide, Chapter 3.3: Note On Geant4 Datasets . The following datasets: G4LEDATA, G4LEVELGAMMADATA, G4SAIDXSDATA and G4ENSDFSTATEDATA are mandatory for this example.

In addition the build-in interactive command:

/process/(in)activate processName

allows to activate/inactivate the processes one by one.

ACTION INITALIZATION

A newly introduced class, B4a::ActionInitialization, (see also \link B4b::ActionInitialization B4b \endlink, \link B4c::ActionInitialization B4c \endlink, \link B4d::ActionInitialization B4d \endlink variants), instantiates and registers to Geant4 kernel all user action classes;

While in sequential mode the action classes are instatiated just once, via invoking the method: B4a::ActionInitialization::Build() (see also \link B4b::ActionInitialization::Build() B4b \endlink, \link B4c::ActionInitialization::Build() B4c \endlink, \link B4d::ActionInitialization::Build() B4d \endlink variants), in multi-threading mode the same method is invoked for each thread worker and so all user action classes are defined thread-local.

A run action class is instantiated both thread-local

and global that's why its instance is created also in the method B4a::ActionInitialization::BuildForMaster() (see also \link B4b::ActionInitialization::BuildForMaster() B4b \endlink, \link B4c::ActionInitialization::BuildForMaster() B4c \endlink, \link B4d::ActionInitialization::BuildForMaster() B4d \endlink variants), which is invoked only in multi-threading mode.

PRIMARY GENERATOR

The primary beam consists of a single particle which hits the calorimeter perpendicular to the input face. The type of the particle and its energy are set in the B4::PrimaryGeneratorAction class, and can be changed via the G4 built-in commands of the G4ParticleGun class (see the macros provided with this example).

RUNS and EVENTS

A run is a set of events.

The user can choose the frequency of printing via the Geant4 interactive command, for example:

/run/printProgress 100

DETECTOR RESPONSE

The energy deposit and track lengths of the charged particles are recorded on an event by event basis in the Absober and Gap layers.

In order to demonstrate several possible ways of data scoring, the example is provided in four variants:

Variant a: User Actions

These 4 quantities are data members of the B4a::EventAction class. They are collected step by step in B4a::SteppingAction::UserSteppingAction(), and passed to the event action via two methods: B4a::EventAction::AddAbs() and B4a::EventAction::AddGap().

In B4a::EventAction::EndOfEventAction(), these quantities are printed and filled in H1D histograms and ntuple to accumulate statistic and compute dispersion.

Variant b: User data object

In order to avoid dependencies between action classes, a user object B4b::RunData, derived from G4Run, is defined with data members needed for the accounted information. In order to reduce the number of data members a 2-dimensions array is introduced for each quantity. Then the quantities are collected step by step in user action classes: B4b::SteppingAction::UserSteppingAction() and B4b::EventAction::EndOfEventAction() in a similar way as in variant a.

Variant c: Hits and Sensitive detectors

In this option, the physics quantities are accounted using the hits and sensitive detectors framework defined in the Geant4 kernel. The physics quantities are stored in B4c::CalorHit via two B4c::CalorimeterSD objects, one associated with the Absorber volume and another one with Gap in B4c::DetectorConstruction::ConstructSDandField().

In contrary to the B2 example (Tracker) where a new hit is created with each track passing the sensitive volume (in the calorimeter), only one hit is created for each calorimeter layer and one more hit to account for the total quantities in all layers. In addition to the variants a and b, the quantities per each layer are also available in addition to the total quantities.

Variant d: Scorer

In this option, the Geant4 scorers which are defined on the top of hits and sensitive detectors Geant4 framework are used. In practice this means that the user does not need to define hits and sensitive detector classes but rather uses the classes already defined in Geant4. In this example, the G4MultiFunctionalDetector with G4PSEnergyDeposit and G4PSTrackLength primitive scores are used (see B4d::DetectorConstruction::ConstructSDandField()).

The scorers hits are saved in form of ntuples in a Root file using Geant4 analysis tools. This feature is activated in the main() function with instantiating G4TScoreNtupleWriter.

Also with this approach, the quantities per each layer are available in addition to the total quantities.

HISTOGRAMS

The analysis tools are used to accumulate statistics and compute the dispersion of the energy deposit and track lengths of the charged particles. H1D histograms are created in B4::RunAction::RunAction() (see also \link B4b::RunAction::RunAction() B4b \endlink variant) for the following quantities:

Energy deposit in absorber
Energy deposit in gap
Track length in absorber
Track length in gap

The same values are also saved in an ntuple.

The histograms and the ntuple are saved in the output file in a format according to a specified file extension, the default in this example is ROOT.

The accumulated statistic and computed dispersion is printed at the end of run, in B4::RunAction::EndOfRunAction() ((see also \link B4b::RunAction::EndOfRunAction() B4b \endlink variant). When running in multi-threading mode, the histograms and the ntuple accumulated on threads are merged in a single output file. While merging of histograms is performed by default, merging of ntuples is explicitly activated in the B4::RunAction constructor.

The ROOT histograms and ntuple can be plotted with ROOT using the plotHisto.C and plotNtuple.C macros.

HOW TO RUN

This example handles the program arguments in a new way. It can be run with the following optional arguments:

% exampleB4a [-m macro ] [-u UIsession] [-t nThreads] [-vDefault]

The -vDefault option will activate using the default Geant4 stepping verbose class (G4SteppingVerbose) instead of the enhanced stepping verbose with best units (G4SteppingVerboseWithUnits) used in the example by default.

The -t option is available only in multi-threading mode and it allows the user to override the Geant4 default number of threads. The number of threads can be also set via G4FORCENUMBEROFTHREADS environment variable which has the top priority.

Execute exampleB4a in the 'interactive mode' with visualization

% exampleB4a
and type in the commands from run1.mac line by line:
Idle> /tracking/verbose 1
Idle> /run/beamOn 1
Idle> ...
Idle> exit

or

Idle> /control/execute run1.mac
....
Idle> exit

Execute exampleB4a in the 'batch' mode from macro files (without visualization)

% exampleB4a -m run2.mac
% exampleB4a -m exampleB4.in > exampleB4.out

Execute exampleB4a in the 'interactive mode' with a selected UI session, e.g. tcsh

% exampleB4a -u tcsh

The following paragraphs are common to all basic examples

VISUALISATION

The visualization manager is set via the G4VisExecutive class in the main() function in exampleB4a.cc (or exampleB4b.cc, exampleB4c.cc, exampleB4d.cc). The initialisation of the drawing is done via a set of /vis/ commands in the macro vis.mac. This macro is automatically read from the main function when the example is used in interactive running mode.

By default, vis.mac opens the default viewer (/vis/open). This chooses a graphics system (in order of priority):

by argument in G4VisExecutive construction.
by environment variable, G4VIS_DEFAULT_DRIVER.
by information in ~/.g4session.
by mode (batch/interactive) and if interactive, by your build flags.

The user can change the initial viewer

with environment variable G4VIS_DEFAULT_DRIVER. The format is
```
<graphics-system> [<window-size-hint>]
```
Set this, e.g:
- (bash) export G4VIS_DEFAULT_DRIVER=TSG
- (tcsh) setenv G4VIS_DEFAULT_DRIVER OI
  - The window-size-hint can optionally be added, e.g:
  - (bash) export G4VIS_DEFAULT_DRIVER="RayTracerQt 1000x1000-0+0"
on the command line, precede the app invocation, e.g:
- ```
G4VIS_DEFAULT_DRIVER=Vtk ./<application-name>
```
with ~/.g4session.

For other suggestions for G4VIS_DEFAULT_DRIVER (see list of registered graphics systems printed at the start):

DAWNFILE: to create a .prim file suitable for viewing in DAWN.
VRML2FILE: to create a .wrl file suitable for viewing in a VRML viewer.
"TSG_OFFSCREEN 1200x1200": to create an image file with TSG.
- See the tsg_offscreen.mac in examples/basic/B5 for more commands to change the file format, file name, picture size, etc.

See "Choosing a graphics viewer" in the Application Guide for details.

Of course you can change the viewer by editing the /vis/open line in vis.mac.

Also, after the initial viewer opens, you may open a different viewer by typing on the command line, e.g:

/vis/open DAWNFILE

/vis/open RayTraceQt

(if you are using the Qt GUI).

The view parameters of the existing viewer are copied.

The DAWNFILE and similar drivers are always available (since they require no external libraries), but the OGL driver requires that the Geant4 libraries have been built with the OpenGL option.

USER INTERFACES

The user command interface is set via the G4UIExecutive class in the main() function in exampleB4a.cc

The selection of the user command interface is then done automatically according to the Geant4 configuration or it can be done explicitly via the third argument of the G4UIExecutive constructor (see exampleB4a.cc).

The gui.mac macros are provided in examples B2, B4 and B5. This macro is automatically executed if Geant4 is built with any GUI session. It is also possible to customise the icons menu bar which is demonstrated in the icons.mac macro in example B5.