Comparison between EGSnrc, Geant4, MCNP5 and Penelope for mono-energetic electron beams

Abstract

A simple geometry is chosen to highlight similarities and differences of current electron transport algorithms implemented in four Monte Carlo codes commonly used in radiation physics. Energy deposited in a water-filled sphere by mono-energetic electron beams was calculated using EGSnrc, Geant4, MCNP5 and Penelope as the radius of the sphere varied from 0.25 cm to 4.5 cm for beam energies of 0.5 MeV, 1.0 MeV and 5.0 MeV. The calculations were performed in single-scattering mode (where applicable) and in condensed history mode. A good agreement is found for the single-scattering calculations except for the in-air case at 0.5 MeV where differences increase with decreasing radius up to 5% between EGSnrc and Penelope. Differences between results calculated with the default user settings when compared to their own single-scattering modes are under 5% for all codes when the sphere is surrounded by vacuum, however, large differences occur for Geant4, MCNP5 and Penelope when air is introduced around the sphere. Finally, the parameters associated with the multiple scattering algorithms were tuned reducing these differences below 10% for these codes at the expense of increased computation time.

Investigating energy deposition in glandular tissues for mammography using multiscale Monte Carlo simulations

“…Results were also found to be unaffected by changes in the distance from a region boundary where single scattering mode is used instead of the condensed history approach. Other works considering μm‐scale geometries have compared EGSnrc results with results from other MC codes, demonstrating good agreement within microscopic scoring regions . Additionally, the macroscopic aspects of the simulation geometry were verified by comparing our MC results with those presented in TG‐195 (results not shown).…”

Microdosimetric considerations for radiation response studies using Raman spectroscopy

“…EGSnrc employs a condensed history (CH) “class II” approach to model electron transport, switching to single‐scattering mode when an electron is within 3 mean free paths of a boundary between regions; our results are insensitive to variations in this distance parameter (“Skin depth for BCA”). The self‐consistency of EGSnrc calculations in condensed history and single‐scattering modes has been demonstrated in the literature . Recent work compared CH and track structure simulations (various MC codes) for μm‐size targets with keV incident electrons, demonstrating overall good agreement.…”

Monte Carlo and analytic simulations in nanoparticle-enhanced radiation therapy

“…Tutor7pp is a standard code with the EGSnrc distribution that uses analog scoring to calculate energy deposition in each region along with energy reflected and transmitted through the geometry. 14 The code was modified to tag and track photoelectrons, Auger electrons, Compton photons, or Compton electrons. If the tracked particle deposited its energy within the cell, its type and energy was outputted to a file and the energy was scored in a bin based on its type.…”

“…Written in Fortran 90, this transport code uses a condensed history model. 14,15 EGSnrc is a free open-source software package distributed by the National Research Council of Canada. Written in C++, it has an exact boundary crossing algorithm that is used in conjunction with the PRESTA-II transport code.…”

“…16 Because of the broad range of applications of GEANT4, the user must supply a physics list that outlines the details of the model. 14,17 EGSnrc was decided upon due to it being free open-source software, with its ease of use for user input files, customizable material files, geometry visualization, and documentation.…”