2025 Planned Features

Items in this list are related to developments scheduled for the current year. Fixes, studies and maintenance items, as well as normal testing, Q/A tasks are not mentioned here, as part of routine activity

NOTE: Items marked with (*) may or may not be achieved in 2025.

Configuration & Software Management

  • Update collaboration tools to use new CERN Authentication methods - (1)
  • Review numerical methods and corresponding functions/classes used across toolkit for commonality and optimization - (1)/(2)
  • Modularization of Geant4 Libraries - (1)/(2)
  • Configuration/Build tools for User Applications: provide pkg-config scripts for use by non-CMake build tools - (2)
  • Investigate use of GitLab/Hub CI as a possible replacement for Jenkins - (2)

Electromagnetic physics & optical processes

  • Infrastructure:
    • Provide option to enable/disable fluctuations per G4Region - (1)
    • Parallel initialisation of EM physics - (2)
  • R&D - G4HepEm:
    • Configuration per detector region: e.g. provide the possibility to use different MSC stepping in different detector regions - (1)
    • Add the missing gamma- and lepto-nuclear cross-section and implement connection layer for tracks from G4HepEm to native Geant4 tracking for sampling of final state of nuclear processes - (1)
    • Implement the “general process”-like handling of the macroscopic cross-sections - (1)
    • Implement the possibility of Woodcock tracking of gamma photons - (1)
    • Extension and optimisation of tracking algorithms per particle type - (2)
  • High Energy Physics developments:
    • Provide an option to use EPICS-2017 data for Compton scattering - (1)
    • Experimental validation and update of G4ChannelingFastSimModel, G4BaierKatkov and G4CoherentPairProduction models - (2)
    • Implementation of a ML model trained on Particle-in-Cell simulations of laser-driven plasma wake field acceleration - (2)
    • Development of methods for simulation of inverse Compton scattering - (2)
    • Integration of polarization and quantum entanglement effects in cascade gammas and ?<80>0 decay gammas - (2)
  • Low Energy Physics models:
    • Maintenance and refinement of polarised/non-polarised Compton models - (1)/(2)
    • Investigations of models mor ion-plasma stopping powers - (2)
    • Extended microelectronics code for additional materials - (2)
  • Optical photon processes and X-ray physics:
    • Introduce model approach into Cerenkov, Scintillation, and WLS processes, activated for logical volumes - (1)
    • Allow specification of border surfaces by material or logical volume - (1)
    • Maintenance and optimisation of optical classes - (1)/(2)
    • Implement a new Cerenkov model valid for thin materials - (2)
    • Introduce spline fitting to the spectra inputs for optical physics - (2)
    • Complete the X-ray Bragg reflection on a cylindrical lens - (2)
    • Implementation of X-ray refraction processes - (2)
  • DNA physics & chemistry
    • Removal of dependency of DNA sub-library from analysis sub-library - (1)
    • Improvement of DNA physics models for ions - (1)/(2)
    • Study of optimal energy overlap between G4-DNA RPWBA and Born model - (1)/(2)
    • Development of the physics and physics-chemical stage for e- and e+ interactions with gaseous N2, O2, CO2 - (1)/(2)
    • Human normal and malignant cell irradiations with different ion species in order to estimate RBE dependence on LET and valuation of DNA DSB followed as a function of post-irradiation time. Obtained results in vitro will be compared with numerical simulations - (1)/(2)
    • Implementation of molecular excitation cross-section model and validation - (1)/(2)
    • Integration of new models for Li ions - (2)
    • Carbon ions implementation in Geant4-DNA - (2)
    • Update to chemistry module: IRT-syn model and mesoscopic model - (2)
    • Implementation of cellular oxygen chemistry in G4DNA chemistry options - (2)
    • Implementation of the Relativistic Option 4 electron inelastic model - (2)
    • Radio enhancement studies for gold nanoparticles with the newly developed dielectric relativistic models for gold - (2)
    • Prototype of software for the simulation of water radiolysis under multi-pulse irradiation - (2)
  • Validation & Testing:
    • Validation of new 5D generators for muon pair production - (1)/(2)
    • Validation of 3-gamma annihilation models for different EM physics lists - (1)/(2)
    • Benchmarking simulations using the relativistic version of DNA_Option4 as inelastic with ELSEPA elastic model and comparison with Uehara elastic model - (1)/(2)
    • Benchmarking and validation of the new inelastic models for gold material within the relativistic plane wave Born approximation up to 1 MeV - (1)/(2)
    • Validation of physics list for radiation dosimetry standards in metrology field - (2)

Geometry & Field Transport

  • Optimisation of QSS field driver (Quantized State Simulation) - (1)
  • Extensions/improvements to parallel geometry initialisation - (1)/(2)
  • Improve robustness and performance of selected Geant4 solids - (1)/(2)
  • Use of multi-threading to speed up overlap checking and volume calculation - (2)
  • Investigate alternative implementation of navigation history - (2)
  • Improve default values of parameters for field propagation - (2)
  • Complete prototype on surface bounded volumes in VecGeom - (2)

Hadronic Physics

  • String Models
    • Verification of the string rotation algorithm of FTF model using Cronin’s experimental data on p-A interactions at 200, 300, and 400 GeV/c - (1)/(2)
    • Tuning of QGS parameters for descriptions of meson production in p-p and p-A interactions using NA61/SHINE experimental data, especially for the description of strange meson production - (1)/(2)
    • Study of FTF model possibilities for descriptions of nucleus-nucleus interactions at E_cms_NN > 3 GeV - (1)/(2)
    • Study of p-p and d-d elastic scattering codes in Geant4, and possibly improvement based on experimental data - (1)/(2)
    • Testing and possible improvements of the production of strange particles in hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions in the FTF and QGS models coupled with Preco or Binary cascade models, using new experimental data at various initial energies - (1)/(2)
    • Analysis of probabilities and kinematical spectra of charmed particles produced in hadron-hadron and hadron-nucleus interactions in FTF and QGS models, using data of various experiments - (1)/(2)
    • Review of Birks’ treatment in hadronic calorimeters to take into account the interplay between string (FTF) and intra-nuclear cascade (BERT) models - (1)/(2)
    • Model parameter studies of FTF and other models (Preco, Bertini, etc.) as well - (1)/(2)
    • Maintenance and improvement of the hadronic framework; code improvements of FTF and QGS models - (1)/(2)
  • Intra-nuclear Cascade models
    • Code review and maintenance in Bertini-like (BERT) and Binary (BIC) models - (1)/(2)
    • Extension for antineutron in Liege (INCLXX) model - (1)/(2)
  • Precompound/de-excitation Models
    • Improvements in ABLA++ model to the description of fission-barrier heights with existing experimental data - (1)/(2)
    • Addition of more fission modes in ABLA++ to improve the description of mass and charge distributions of fission fragments - (1)/(2)
    • Code review and improvements to the de-excitation module - (1)/(2)
  • Radioactive Decay model
    • Improvements and testing of the radioactive decay biasing - (1)/(2)
  • High Precision (HP) Models
    • Implement the use of pre-Doppler broaden cross-section database at a given temperature; implementation of the algorithm that allows to do that at the beginning of a Geant4 simulation - (1)/(2)
    • Translation of new nuclear data library releases from the ENDF-6 format to the G4NDL format, and verification - (1)/(2)
    • Improvement and speed-up of Particle-HP code - (1)/(2)
    • Extension of ParticleHP model to higher energies - (1)/(2)
    • Implementation of the AMS (Adaptive Multilevel Splitting) variance reduction technique - (1)/(2)
    • Refinements to the integration of the NuDEX model into Geant4, and expand its usage (not only in neutron capture reactions) - (1)/(2)
  • Low Energy Neutron Data Model
    • Updates to LEND and GIDI - (1)/(2)
  • NCrystal Model
    • Updates to NCrystal-Geant4 hooks - (1)/(2)
  • Other models
    • Development and validation of neutrino/lepton - nuclear physics - (1)/(2)
    • Use of Pythia8 as an external generator: application for LDMX experiment - (1)/(2)
    • Maintenance of the interface to FLUKA.CERN hadron-nucleus inelastic interactions - (1)/(2)
    • Further development of the charge exchange model - (1)/(2)
    • Finalising the emulation of the computation via a Deep Learning (DL) model of the QMD and LIQMD hamiltonian derivative. Exploring the possibility of emulating BLOB or a portion of it with DL - (1)/(2)
    • Update of the QMD model in the energy region of heavy ion therapy - (1)/(2)
    • Muonic atoms developments - (1)/(2)
    • Refactoring of the implementations of Legendre polynomials - (1)/(2)
  • Validation & Testing
    • Coverage extendsion of hadronic tests for calorimeter test-beams and low-energy neutron tests - (1)/(2)
    • Study of the sensitivity of the MC predictions to the variations of various parameters and development of needed infrastructure - (1)/(2)
    • Validation of electro-production using electron beam at JLab’s energies - (1)/(2)
    • Validation and support of hadron-therapy applications - (1)/(2)
  • Hadronic Datasets
    • Refinements to Hadronic Datasets G4ENSDFSTATE, PhotonEvaporation, RadioactiveDecay - (1)/(2)
    • Update of G4PARTICLEXS based on room-temperature cross-sections of Particle-HP - (1)/(2)

Materials, Generic Processes and Parameterisations

  • Fast Simulation
    • Implementation and validation of GFlash code with general fast sim tools - (1)/(2)
    • Continuing revision of GFlash models - (1)/(2)
    • Inclusion of detailed vs fast simulation comparison/validation tests into geant-val - (1)/(2)
  • Reverse Monte-Carlo
    • Investigate issue with protons - (1)/(2)
  • Biasing
    • Investigate overlap between generic and geometrical biasing - (1)/(2)
    • Prototyping of DXTRAN-like functionality - (1)/(2)
    • Biasing of charged particle interaction occurrence - (1)/(2)
    • Extend generic biasing scheme for at rest case - (1)/(2)
  • Materials
    • Code improvements - (1)/(2)

Particles & Tracking

  • Update of particle properties to latest PDG data - (1)/(2)
  • Implementation and testing of clone methods of trajectory and trajectory point objects; implementation and testing of caching mechanism for trajectory and trajectory point classes - (1)/(2)
  • Performance tests and improvements - (1)/(2)
  • Polishing up code readability and documentation - (1)/(2)
  • Re-design and implementation of G4ForceConditions - (1)/(2)

Persistency & Analysis

  • Regular maintenance & extensions to GDML and analysis classes- (1)/(2)
  • Addition of support for parallel geometries in ASCII - (1)/(2)

Physics Lists

  • Review of physics lists code - (1)/(2)
  • Recommendation/documentation of physics-lists for specific use cases - (1)/(2)
  • Maintenance and upgrade of the PenelopeEM physics constructor - (1)/(2)
  • Review organisation of library structure to allow for optional libraries build - (1)/(2)

Physics Validation and Tools

  • Collect and document existing regression tests, validation applications and benchmarks; assess coverage/observable and sensitivity - (1)/(2)
  • Define a list of requirements to integrate new tests (precission, sensitivity/observable, regression/validation) - (1)/(2)
  • Document methodology, tests results and infrastructure itself - (1)/(2)
  • Transport of light ions validation - (1)/(2)
  • Validation of Geant4 hadronic models - (1)/(2)
  • Hadronic showers tests, reproducibility tests - (1)/(2)
  • Protontherapy profile shape study - (1)/(2)
  • Extend validation of ATLAS Electromagnetic barrel calorimeter - (1)/(2)
  • Integrate tests for biasing and gflash into geant-val - (1)/(2)

Run, Event, Detector Response & Scoring

  • Review of scoring in parallel world and validation of all primitive scorers - (1)/(2)
  • Enhancements to material scanner utility - (1)/(2)
  • Revision of drawing methods of scores - (2)
  • Interface to HepMC3 with a new example - (2)

Visualisation and Graphics Representations (WORKPLAN 2024 - TO UPDATE!)

  • OpenGL drivers:
    • Complete support of Qt6 - (1)
    • Rubberband picking (2)/(*)
    • Adapt to newer OpenGL versions, exploit new functionalities and replace deprecated calls such as glBegin/glEnd - (2)/(*)
  • Vtk driver:
    • Jupyter notebook interface to VTK (via KitWare Trame) - (1)/(2)
    • Shared AR viewer target export - (1)/(2)
    • USD(Z) export - (1)/(2)
    • Solid cylinder for trajectory (option) to enable usage of exported data in a wide range of 3D applications - (1)/(2)
    • Physicially based rendering (PBR) for VTK - (1)/(2)
    • Short video on VTK driver - (1)/(2)
  • Open Inventor:
    • Refinements and extensions to the Open Inventor Qt Viewer - (1)/(2)
    • Work on reference path to move through the geometry - (*)
    • Improved use/install of Coin library - (*)
  • Other drivers:
    • Improvements and further developments to native Qt3D driver (text, transparency…) - (2)
    • Improvements and further developments to tools_sg (TSG) driver based on g4tools - (2)
    • Ability to change color map according to preset maps - (2)/(*)
    • Development of visualisation solutions for iOS and Android devices - (2)/(*)

Advanced Examples

  • Maintenance and code review in selected examples - (1)/(2)
  • Finish off and submit IAEAphsp example - (2)
  • Validation of the molecularDNA example with experimental data from proton and helium ion irradiations and creation of new cancer cell and complex DNA geometries to be integrated in the example - (2)
  • Design of realistic phantoms of C. elegans in the stim_pixe_tomography example - (2)
  • Implementation of the collimators for minibeam production and small field dosimeters within the eFLASH_radiotherapy example - (2)
  • Implementation and validation of the TEPC microdosimeter in exp_microdosimetry example - (2)
  • Evaluation of LET dependent RBE both in silico and in vitro for the purpose of validation of the hadrontherapy example and validation with helium ion beams through comparison with publication - (2)

Novice & Extended Examples

  • New example on ion Cerenkov spectrometer - (1)
  • Implementation of medium with photons and thermal-photon inverse Compton scattering inside TestEm16 - (1)
  • Implementation of new examples of applications in oriented crystals including crystalline undulator and positron source - (1)/(2)
  • New example demonstrating Julia bindings - (1)/(2)
  • New medical example on laser-plasma topic - (1)/(2)
  • Finish implementation of ReverseMC example in MT - (1)/(2)
  • New example illustrating generic biasing for “DXTRAN” MCNP-like option and occurrence interaction of charged particles - (1)/(2)
  • Biasing examples: fix overlap among B02, B03 and GB03 examples - (1)/(2)
  • Release of the generalisable fast shower simulation model (CaloDiT), with machine-learning techniques in Par04 example - (1)/(2)
  • Enhance examples for sub-event parallelism and improve drawing of scores - (1)/(2)
  • General oversight of exploitation of UI and Vis in all examples - (1)/(2)
  • Implementation of reading of an external phase space file (generated by other codes or a clinical Treatment Planning System) for source generation in radiobiology example - (1)/(2)
  • Extension of the DICOM example by adding gps part, and detector part - (1)/(2)
  • Updates and extensions to G4DNA neuron, dnaphysics, microdosimetry, UHDR and AuNP examples - (1)/(2)
  • Continue application of coding guidelines - (1)/(2)
  • New example to illustrate the use of the Inverse Compton Scattering event generator - (2)

Deadlines

  • First semester - 26 June 2025
  • Second semester - 5 December 2025