Seeking Insights on the Necessity of Charged Particle Cross-Sections in Monte Carlo Simulations

[ceruttif (Francesco Cerutti)]

@lway97

While MCNP provides cross-sections for photons, electrons, and protons, FLUKA seems to focus more on neutron cross-sections, at least from my initial exploration.

Not really. In FLUKA, low-energy (< 20 MeV) neutron cross sections come from external libraries, featuring a dedicated treatment, and that’s why the manual focuses more extensively on them. Nevertheless, cross sections for all other kinds of particles are included in the code, which calculates them internally.

@lway97

I am not sure if omitting certain types of cross-sections could lead to significant inaccuracies or if the simulation can still provide useful results without them.

Of course, if certain cross sections are not included in a code, the latter cannot properly treat the respective processes. But, as pointed out above, the assumption that FLUKA misses charged particle cross sections is orthogonal to reality.