Theoretical and computational considerations of Quasi-Free (p; 2p) reactions using the distorted-wave impulse approximation and Monte Carlo simulations in Geant4

Abstract

Under current investigation is the re-implementation of the Distorted-Wave Impulse Approximation (DWIA), originally formulated in FORTRAN by N.S. Chant and P.G. Roos, with the intention of developing it in a portable Python environment. This will be complimented by developing a GEANT4 detector simulation application. These two techniques will be used to model the (p,2p) proton knock-out reaction 40Ca(p; 2p)39K (2.52 MeV)1 2 + first excited state, at intermediate incident energies of 150 MeV. This study is a test-bed that lays the foundation and platform from which one may develop an interactive workbench and toolkit in GEANT4 which: (i.) accurately models an accelerator-detector experimental set-up, such as those found at iThemba Labs, and (ii.) incorporates the DWIA formalism as a built-in physics process within the framework of GEANT4. Furthermore the Python modules developed for the specific proton knock-out reaction studied here, can be generalized for an arbitrary set of nuclear scattering reactions and packaged as a suite of scientific Python codes.