The Virtual Monte Carlo (VMC) allows to run different simulation Monte Carlo without changing the user code and therefore the input and output format as well as the geometry and detector response definition.
The core of the VMC is the category of classes vmc. It provides a set of interfaces which completely decouple the dependencies between the user code and the concrete Monte Carlo:
- TVirtualMC: Interface to the concrete Monte Carlo program
- TVirtualMCApplication: Interface to the user's Monte Carlo application
- TVirtualMCStack: Interface to the particle stack
- TVirtualMCDecayer: Interface to the external decayer
- TVirtualMCSensitiveDetector: Interface to the user's sensitive detector
The implementation of the TVirtualMC interface is provided for two Monte Carlo transport codes, GEANT3 and Geant4, with the VMC packages listed below. The implementation for the third Monte Carlo transport code, FLUKA, has been discontinued by the FLUKA team in 2010.
The other three interfaces are implemented in the user application.The user has to implement two mandatory classes: the MC application (derived from TVirtualMCApplication) and the MC stack (derived from TVirtualMCStack), optionally an external decayer (derived from TVirtualMCDecayer) can be introduced. The user VMC application is independent from concrete transport codes (GEANT3, Geant4, FLUKA). The transport code which will be used for simulation is selected at run time - when processing a ROOT macro where the concrete Monte Carlo is instantiated.
The relationships between the interfaces and their implementations are illustrated in the class diagrams: User MC application , Virtual MC , demonstarting the decoupling between the user code and the concrete transport code.
The VMC is fully integrated with the Root geometry package, TGeo, and users can easily define their VMC application with TGeo geometry and this way of geometry definition is recommended for new users.
It is also possible to define geometry via Geant3-like functions defined in the VMC interface, however this way is kept only for backward compatibility and should not be used by new VMC users.
Geant3 VMC (C++) is provided within a single package together with GEANT3 (Fortran) - geant3 .
Geant4 VMC is provided within a package geant4_vmc , that, in difference from geant3, naturally does not include Geant4 itself and you will need the Geant4 installation to run your VMC application with Geant4 VMC.
Since the development version the simulation can be shared among multiple different engines deriving from TVirtualMC which are handled by a singleton TMCManager object.
See more detailed description in the dedicated section in the documentation.
The concept of Virtual MonteCarlo has been developed by the ALICE Software Project.
Authors: R.Brun 1, F.Carminati 1, A. Gheata 1, I.Hrivnacova 2, A.Morsch 1, B.Volkel 1,3;
1European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland;
2Universite Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, Orsay, France;
3Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany
Contact: root-vmc@cern.ch
VMC pages maintained by: Ivana Hrivnacova
Last update: 24/02/2020