Software/Geant4

Geant4

GEANT4 is a toolkit for simulating the passage of particles through matter. You can use GEANT4 by creating your own simulation applications using the available GEANT4 tools.

• Introduction to GEANT4 will help you understand the basics of GEANT4 and the necessary ingredients to write your own application.
• Useful links:
  • Geant4 User's Guide for Application Developers
  • Physics Reference Manual
  • GEANT4 Classes
  • GEANT4 hypernews
  • Geant4 Cross Reference
  • Frequently Asked Questions

This is a tutorial about applications of GEANT4 to medical physics. GEANT4 is installed on the HEP Linux cluster at UCL. You will need an account on that cluster to be able to use this software, run example tutorials and create your own applications.

Running Geant4 Simulations

In order to run Geant4 simulations, you will either need to download and install the software yourself or make use of the existing installation on the UCL HEP Linux cluster.

• Getting a computing account

Apply for a computing account on the HEP Linux cluster by sending e-mail to UCL HEP Computing Support. In your e-mail you have to state the reason for your application (e.g. medical physics student who will use GEANT4 on the HEP cluster).

You will receive an e-mail from the HEP computing support with your username and password. Now you can log in to the HEP cluster plus1 via ssh username@plus1.hep.ucl.ac.uk. Your personal area on plus1 cluster will be at /home/username/.

Tutorials

A number of tutorials are available to help you get started running your own simulations. It is recommended that novice users make use of these simulations as templates to construct their own.

There are two sets of tutorials available to help you getting started in running simulations with Geant4:

• The Basic Tutorials introduce the rudiments of Geant4 for proton therapy simulations: these are described in more detail on the Basic Tutorials page.
• The Advanced Tutorials describe more sophisticated proton therapy simulations in Geant4: more information can be found on the Advanced Tutorials page.

Data Analysis Software

These tutorials use ROOT to analyse data. Useful links:

• ROOT User's Guide
• ROOT Primer
• ROOT tutorials

Similarly, data can be analysed using MATLAB. This is a link to interactive introduction to MATLAB:

• MATLAB introduction

Installing GEANT4 locally

• Downloading the Geant4 package
• Linux terminal
• Installing Geant4
• Updating Geant4
• Running an example