minimc
Effects of geometry and multiple scattering are normally included in simulations only when NCrystal is used with a suitable frontend like for example McStas, OpenMC, or Geant4. The frontend application then keeps track of neutron trajectories and fluxes as they propagate around in a particular geometry, asking NCrystal along the way for information about neutron-material interactions. However, NCrystal actually comes with its own small frontend in form of the "MiniMC" engine, in which neutrons are propagated through a single convex volume and recorded as they come out.
This is intended as a light-weight alternative to using NCrystal in fully-fledged applications, and can be used to investigate properties of neutrons scattered in a particular material, including the effects of geometry and multiple scattering.
(TODO: Include an image or two, describe cfg-strings, scenario cfg, callbacks, high-level capabilities, simple examples, and links to example notebook, CLI, Py, ...).
In order to launch a MiniMC simulation, a few cfg-strings must be provided:
- A cfg-string for the material. Refer to "Uniform material configuration syntax" on the Using-NCrystal page, as well as the reference documentation.
- Geometry and source configuration via geomcfg and a srccfg string. Alternatively, to support quick interactive usage, one can provide just a simple scenario string.
- Optionally, an enginecfg string for controlling various aspects like what quantities to tally, variance reduction strategies, or number of threads to use.