Features of Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) version 3.02

• Published in: Journal of nuclear science and technology Vol. 55; no. 6; pp. 684 - 690
• Main Authors: Sato, Tatsuhiko, Iwamoto, Yosuke, Hashimoto, Shintaro, Ogawa, Tatsuhiko, Furuta, Takuya, Abe, Shin-ichiro, Kai, Takeshi, Tsai, Pi-En, Matsuda, Norihiro, Iwase, Hiroshi, Shigyo, Nobuhiro, Sihver, Lembit, Niita, Koji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Taylor & Francis 03.06.2018; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: atomic interaction; Atomic structure; Computer simulation; Continuous improvement; Health physics; Interaction models; Ion transport; Medical research; Monte Carlo; nuclear data; nuclear reaction; particle transport simulation; PHITS; Physics; Radiation shielding; radioisotope decay; Software development tools; Water
• ISSN: 0022-3131; 1881-1248
• DOI: 10.1080/00223131.2017.1419890

We have upgraded many features of the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) and released the new version as PHITS3.02. The accuracy and the applicable energy ranges of the code were greatly improved and extended, respectively, owing to the revisions to the nuclear reaction models and the incorporation of new atomic interaction models. Both condense history and track-structure methods were implemented to handle the electron and positron transport, although the latter is reliable only for simulations in liquid water. In addition, several user-supportive functions were developed, such as new tallies to efficiently obtain statistically better results, radioisotope source-generation function, and software tools useful for applying PHITS to medical physics. Owing to the continuous improvement and promotion of the code, the number of registered users has exceeded 3,000, and it is being used in diverse areas of study, including accelerator design, radiation shielding and protection, medical physics, and cosmic-ray research. In this paper, we summarize the basic features of PHITS3.02, especially those of the physics models and the functions implemented after the release of PHITS2.52 in 2013.