Geant4-based Simulation Of Cherenkov Radiation Generated By Electron

The Cherenkov radiation is a phenomenon that when a charged particle ismoving faster than light speed inside a medium, a faint light would appear. Currently,the Cherenkov radiation has been widely used in biology、medicine、environmentalscience、hygiene and nuclear physics, et al. Because of the widely use of theCherenkov radiation in many fields, the research of Cherenkov radiation is veryimportant.In the Cherenkov radiation effect, the charged particle must be moving fasterthan light speed inside a medium. And the Cherenkov radiation light is very weak.What’s more, the Cherenkov radiation would be absorbed by the medium. Theseincrease the cost and difficulty of the experimental. However, the Cherenkov radiationprocess simulated by Geant4not only overcome these difficulties, but alsorealistically achieve the effect of the Cherenkov radiation.In this paper, the Cherenkov radiation generated by electron in water、PMMAand lead glass is simulated by Geant4which was developed by CERN. The effect ofthe energies of incident electrons and the radiator media to the Cherenkov radiationwas discussed. And the effect of the secondary electrons to the Cherenkov radiationwas discussed. Besides, the effect of the energies of incident electrons to theCherenkov photons and the absorption of Cherenkov photons were discussed. In theend, the emission time and range were also discussed. The conclusions as follows:(1) The angular distribution of the Cherenkov radiation are influenced by theenergies of incident electrons and the refractive index. The more of the energies ofincident electrons and the refractive index, the larger of the angular of the Cherenkovradiation。(2)The effect of the secondary electrons to the Cherenkov angular is very little.So when discussing the angular of the Cherenkov radiation generated by electrons, theportion of the secondary electrons can be neglected. (3) The Cherenkov radiation generated by electrons are mostly in the range ofvisible light. And the Cherenkov radiation are very weak. The Cherenkov photons areincreased with the increase of the energies of the incident electrons. The absorption ofCherenkov are most obvious in lead glass when the Cherenkov radiation is moving inthe water、PMMA and lead glass.(4) The Cherenkov radiation range and the emission time are influenced by theenergies of incident electrons. The range of the Cherenkov radiation are increasedwith the increase of the energies of the incident electrons. And the emission time ofthe Cherenkov radiation is very short, usually less than1ns.