GATE (Geant4 Application for Emission Tomography) is a Monte Carlo simulation platform developed by the OpenGATE collaboration since 2001 and first publicly released in 2004. Dedicated to the ...modelling of planar scintigraphy, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) acquisitions, this platform is widely used to assist PET and SPECT research. A recent extension of this platform, released by the OpenGATE collaboration as GATE V6, now also enables modelling of x-ray computed tomography and radiation therapy experiments. This paper presents an overview of the main additions and improvements implemented in GATE since the publication of the initial GATE paper (Jan et al 2004 Phys. Med. Biol. 49 4543-61). This includes new models available in GATE to simulate optical and hadronic processes, novelties in modelling tracer, organ or detector motion, new options for speeding up GATE simulations, examples illustrating the use of GATE V6 in radiotherapy applications and CT simulations, and preliminary results regarding the validation of GATE V6 for radiation therapy applications. Upon completion of extensive validation studies, GATE is expected to become a valuable tool for simulations involving both radiotherapy and imaging.
New charge- and current-sensitive preamplifiers coupled to silicon detectors and devoted to studies in nuclear structure and dynamics have been developed and tested. For the first time shapes of ...current pulses from light charged particles and carbon ions are presented. Capabilities for pulse shape discrimination techniques are demonstrated.
The possibility of measuring the proton electromagnetic form factors in the time-like region at FAIR with the \PANDA detector is discussed. Detailed simulations on signal efficiency for the ...annihilation of $\bar p +p $ into a lepton pair as well as for the most important background channels have been performed. It is shown that precision measurements of the differential cross section of the reaction $\bar p +p \to e^++ e^-$ can be obtained in a wide angular and kinematical range. The individual determination of the moduli of the electric and magnetic proton form factors will be possible up to a value of momentum transfer squared of $q^2\simeq 14$ (GeV/c)$^2$. The total $\bar p +p\to e^++e^-$ cross section will be measured up to $q^2\simeq 28$ (GeV/c)$^2$. The results obtained from simulated events are compared to the existing data. Sensitivity to the two photons exchange mechanism is also investigated.
A detailed investigation of hadronic interactions is performed using π−-mesons with energies in the range 2–10 GeV incident on a high granularity silicon–tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter. The ...data were recorded at FNAL in 2008. The region in which the π−-mesons interact with the detector material and the produced secondary particles are characterised using a novel track-finding algorithm that reconstructs tracks within hadronic showers in a calorimeter in the absence of a magnetic field. The principle of carrying out detector monitoring and calibration using secondary tracks is also demonstrated.
The weakly-bound 8He nucleus exhibits a neutron halo or thick neutron skin and is generally considered to have an α+4n structure in its ground state, with the four valence neutrons each occupying ...1p3/2 states outside the α core. The 8He(p,t)6He reaction is a sensitive probe of the ground state structure of 8He, and we present a consistent analysis of new and existing data for this reaction at incident energies of 15.7 and 61.3A MeV, respectively. Our results are incompatible with the usual assumption of a pure (1p3/2)4 structure and suggest that other configurations such as (1p3/2)2(1p1/2)2 may be present with significant probability in the ground state wave function of 8He.
The structure of the light exotic nucleus
8He was investigated using direct reactions of the
8He SPIRAL beam on a proton-rich target. The (p,p') scattering to the
2
1
+
state, the (p,d)
7He and (p,t)
...6He transfer reactions, were measured at the energy
E
l
a
b
=
15.7
A.MeV
. The light charged particles (p,d,t) were detected in the MUST Si-strip telescope array. The excitation spectrum of
8He was extracted from the (p,p') reaction. Above the known
2
1
+
excited state at 3.6 MeV, a second resonance was found around 5.4 MeV. The cross sections were analyzed within the coupled-reaction channels framework, using microscopic potentials. It is inferred that the
8He ground state has a more complex neutron-skin structure than suggested by previous
α
+
4
n
models assuming a pure
(
1
p
3
/
2
)
4
configuration.
This paper presents results obtained with the combined CALICE Scintillator Electromagnetic Calorimeter, Analogue Hadronic Calorimeter and Tail Catcher & Muon Tracker, three high granularity ...scintillator-silicon photomultiplier calorimeter prototypes. The response of the system to pions with momenta between 4 GeV/c and 32 GeV/c is analysed, including the average energy response, resolution, and longitudinal shower profiles. Two techniques are applied to reconstruct the initial particle energy from the measured energy depositions; a standard energy reconstruction which is linear in the measured depositions and a software compensation technique based on reweighting individually measured depositions according to their hit energy. The results are compared to predictions of the GEANT 4 physics lists QGSP_BERT_HP and FTFP_BERT_HP.
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