MaGe-a Geant4-Based Monte Carlo Application Framework for Low-Background Germanium Experiments

Abstract

We describe a physics simulation software framework, MAGE, that is based on the GEANT4 simulation toolkit. MAGE is used to simulate the response of ultra-low radioactive background radiation detectors to ionizing radiation, specifically the MAJ ORANA and GE RDA neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments. MAJ ORANA and GERDA use high-purity germanium technology to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of the 76 Ge isotope, and MAGE is jointly developed between these two collaborations. The MAGE framework contains simulated geometries of common objects, prototypes, test stands, and the actual experiments. It also implements customized event generators, GE ANT 4 physics lists, and output formats. All of these features are available as class libraries that are typically compiled into a single executable. The user selects the particular experimental setup implementation at run-time via macros. The combination of all these common classes into one framework reduces duplication of efforts, eases comparison between simulated data and experiment, and simplifies the addition of new detectors to be simulated. This paper focuses on the software framework, custom event generators, and physics list.