Consortium for Upper Level Physics Software
Nuclear and Particle Physics Simulations
(ISBN 0-471-54883-9)
Authors:
- Roberta Bigelow of Willamette University
- John Philpott of Florida State University
- Joseph Rothberg of University of Washington
Programs:
- NUCLEAR (Nuclear Energetics and Counting), written by Michael
Moloney, is included here, but is described under the Modern Physics
heading.
- MODELS (Nuclear Models), written by Roberta Bigelow, calculates
energy levels for spherical and deformed nuclei using the single
particle shell model. You can explore how the nuclear potential
shape, the spin-orbit interaction, and deformation affect both
the order and spacing of nuclear energy levels. In addition, you
will learn how to predict spin and parity for single particle
states.
- RADIATON (Interaction of Radiation with Matter), written
by Roberta Bigelow, is a simulation of alpha particles, muons,
electrons, or photons interacting with matter. You will develop
an understanding of how ranges, energy losses, and random particle
paths depend on materials, radiation and incident energy. As a
specific application, you can explore photon and electron interactions
in a sodium iodide crystal which determines the energy response
of a radiation detector.
- ELSCATT (Electron-Nucleus Scattering), by John Philpott,
is an interactive software tool that demonstrates various aspects
of electron scattering from nuclei. Specific features include
the relativistic kinematics of electron scattering, densities
and form factors for elastic and inelastic scattering and the
nuclear Coulomb responses. The simulation illustrates how detailed
nuclear structure information can be obtained from electron scattering
measurements.
- TWOBODY (Two-Nucleon Interactions), by John Philpott, is
an interactive software tool that illuminates many features of
the two-nucleon problem. Bound state wavefunctions and properties
can be calculated for a variety of interactions that may included
non-central parts. Phase shifts and cross sections for pp, pn
and nn scattering can be calculated and compared with those obtained
experimentally. Spin-polarization features of the cross sections
can be extensively investigated. The simulation demonstrates the
richness of the two-nucleon data and its relation to the underlying
nucleon-nucleon interaction.
- RELKIN (Relativistic Kinematics), by Joseph Rothberg, is
an interactive program to permit you to explore the relativistic
kinematics of scattering reactions and two body particle decays.
You may choose from among a large number of initial and final
states. The initial momentum of the beam particle and the Center
of Mass angle of a secondary can also be specified. The program
displays the final state vector momenta in both the Lab system
and Center of Mass system along with numerical values of the most
important kinematic quantities. The program may be run in a Monte
Carlo mode displaying a scatter plot and histogram of selected
variable. The particle data base may be modified by the user and
additional reactions and decay modes may be added.
- DETSIM (Particle Detector Simulation), by Joseph Rothberg,
is an interactive tool to allow you to explore methods of determining
parameters of a decaying particle or scattering reaction. The
program simulates the response of high energy particle detectors
to the final state particles from scattering or decays. The detector
size and location may be specified by the user as well as its
energy and spatial resolution. If the program is run in a Monte
Carlo mode, detector hit information for each event is written
to a file. This file can be read by a small reconstruction and
plotting program. You can easily modify one of the example reconstruction
programs that are provided to determine the mass, momentum, and
other properties of the initial particle or state.
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