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DOE OSTI · 3365029

Integration of Silica in G4CMP for Phonon Simulations: Framework and Tools for Material Integration

Stone-Whitehead, Caitlyn [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0009000053967328)·Hernandez, Israel [Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)] (ORCID:000900025990762X)·Bray, Connor [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0000000271093326)·Davenport, Allison [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)]·Fretwell, Spencer [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0000000206404853)·Gillespie, Abigail [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)]·Husic, Joren [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)]·Li, Mingyu [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000247828126)·Marino, Andrew [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0000000286375860)·Leach, Kyle [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States); Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)] (ORCID:0000000247511698)·Rizwan, Bismah [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0009000454214685)·Pontseele, Wouter Van De [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0000000334223133)·Wagner, Grace [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)]
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Abstract

Superconducting detectors with sub-eV energy resolution have demonstrated success setting limits on Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics due to their unique sensitivity to low-energy events. G4CMP, a Geant4-based extension for condensed matter physics, provides a comprehensive toolkit for modeling phonon and charge dynamics in cryogenic materials. This paper introduces a technical formalism to support the superconducting qubit and low-threshold detector community in implementing phonon simulations in custom materials into the G4CMP. As a case study, we present the results of a detailed analysis of silica phonon transport properties relevant for simulating substrate backgrounds in Beryllium Electron capture in Superconducting Tunnel junctions (BeEST)-style experiments using G4CMP. Additionally, Python-based tools were developed to aid users in implementing their own materials and are available on the G4CMP repository.

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Stone-Whitehead, Caitlyn [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0009000053967328), Hernandez, Israel [Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)] (ORCID:000900025990762X), Bray, Connor [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0000000271093326), Davenport, Allison [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)], Fretwell, Spencer [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0000000206404853), Gillespie, Abigail [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)], Husic, Joren [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)], Li, Mingyu [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000247828126), Marino, Andrew [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0000000286375860), Leach, Kyle [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States); Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)] (ORCID:0000000247511698), Rizwan, Bismah [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0009000454214685), Pontseele, Wouter Van De [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0000000334223133), Wagner, Grace [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)]. 2026-01-12. Integration of Silica in G4CMP for Phonon Simulations: Framework and Tools for Material Integration. https://doi.org/10.1109/tasc.2026.3651428

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