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Ferrari, Alfredo

Publications and source records attributed to Ferrari, Alfredo.

Detector Performances Studies at Muon Collider

The Muon Collider is a possible option for the next generation of high energy collider machines. It would permit to achieve the energy frontier in lepton collisions, without occurring in significant synchrotron radiation losses as in electrons rings.Among the technological challenges in the realization of such a machine, the treatment of the beam-induced background is one of the most critical issues for the detectors.Beams with intensity of the order of $10^{12}$ muons per bunch are necessary to obtain the desired luminosity, therefore the muons decay rate is very high. Beam decay products and subsequent particles from secondary interactions with the machine elements can reach the interaction point, limiting the physical performance of the detector. A study of the beam-induced background is presented together with possible strategies for its reduction. Preliminary results on the reconstruction of a benchmark process, $\mu^+\mu^-\to H\nu\bar{\nu}\to b \bar{b}\nu\bar{\nu}$, including the beam-induced background are illustrated as demonstration of physics measurements feasibility in this harsh environment.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

The Application of FLUKA to Dosimetry and Radiation Therapy

Monte Carlo transport codes like FLUKA are useful for many purposes, and one of those is the simulation of the effects of radiation traversing the human body. In particular, radiation has been used in cancer therapy for a long time, and recently this has been extended to include heavy ion particle beams. The advent of this particular type of therapy has led to the need for increased capabilities in the transport codes used to simulate the detailed nature of the treatment doses to the Y ~ ~ O U S tissues that are encountered. This capability is also of interest to NASA because of the nature of the radiation environment in space.[l] While in space, the crew members bodies are continually being traversed by virtually all forms of radiation. In assessing the risk that this exposure causes, heavy ions are of primary importance. These arise both from the primary external space radiation itself, as well as fragments that result from interactions during the traversal of that radiation through any intervening material including intervening body tissue itself. Thus the capability to characterize the details of the radiation field accurately within a human body subjected to such external 'beams" is of critical importance.

Wilson, Thomas L.↗

Event Generators for Simulating Heavy Ion Interactions of Interest in Evaluating Risks in Human Spaceflight

Simulating the Space Radiation environment with Monte Carlo Codes, such as FLUKA, requires the ability to model the interactions of heavy ions as they penetrate spacecraft and crew member's bodies. Monte-Carlo-type transport codes use total interaction cross sections to determine probabilistically when a particular type of interaction has occurred. Then, at that point, a distinct event generator is employed to determine separately the results of that interaction. The space radiation environment contains a full spectrum of radiation types, including relativistic nuclei, which are the most important component for the evaluation of crew doses. Interactions between incident protons with target nuclei in the spacecraft materials and crew member's bodies are well understood. However, the situation is substantially less comfortable for incident heavier nuclei (heavy ions). We have been engaged in developing several related heavy ion interaction models based on a Quantum Molecular Dynamics-type approach for energies up through about 5 GeV per nucleon (GeV/A) as part of a NASA Consortium that includes a parallel program of cross section measurements to guide and verify this code development.

Wilson, Thomas L.↗

Status of the Space Radiation Monte Carlos Simulation Based on FLUKA and ROOT

The NASA-funded project reported on at the first IWSSRR in Arona to develop a Monte-Carlo simulation program for use in simulating the space radiation environment based on the FLUKA and ROOT codes is well into its second year of development, and considerable progress has been made. The general tasks required to achieve the final goals include the addition of heavy-ion interactions into the FLUKA code and the provision of a ROOT-based interface to FLUKA. The most significant progress to date includes the incorporation of the DPMJET event generator code within FLUKA to handle heavy-ion interactions for incident projectile energies greater than 3GeV/A. The ongoing effort intends to extend the treatment of these interactions down to 10 MeV, and at present two alternative approaches are being explored. The ROOT interface is being pursued in conjunction with the CERN LHC ALICE software team through an adaptation of their existing AliROOT software. As a check on the validity of the code, a simulation of the recent data taken by the ATIC experiment is underway.

Andersen, Victor↗