Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System, PHITS, version 2.52

TLDR

PHITS 2.52 achieves higher accuracy and reliability by integrating state‑of‑the‑art nuclear reaction models, refining electron‑, positron‑, and photon‑transport algorithms, adding DCHAIN‑SP for activation calculations, and enhancing efficiency through shared‑memory parallelization and optimized routines, while also providing new user‑support tools. The upgraded PHITS 2.52, released publicly, surpasses its predecessor in code quality, data libraries, and functionality, making it a more powerful particle‑transport tool for nuclear technology, accelerator design, medical physics, and cosmic‑ray research.

Abstract

An upgraded version of the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System, PHITS2.52, was developed and released to the public. The new version has been greatly improved from the previously released version, PHITS2.24, in terms of not only the code itself but also the contents of its package, such as the attached data libraries. In the new version, a higher accuracy of simulation was achieved by implementing several latest nuclear reaction models. The reliability of the simulation was improved by modifying both the algorithms for the electron-, positron-, and photon-transport simulations and the procedure for calculating the statistical uncertainties of the tally results. Estimation of the time evolution of radioactivity became feasible by incorporating the activation calculation program DCHAIN-SP into the new package. The efficiency of the simulation was also improved as a result of the implementation of shared-memory parallelization and the optimization of several time-consuming algorithms. Furthermore, a number of new user-support tools and functions that help users to intuitively and effectively perform PHITS simulations were developed and incorporated. Due to these improvements, PHITS is now a more powerful tool for particle transport simulation applicable to various research and development fields, such as nuclear technology, accelerator design, medical physics, and cosmic-ray research.