Testing Hadronic Interaction Models using a Highly Granular Silicon-Tungsten Calorimeter

Abstract

The CALICE collaboration has published a detailed study of hadronic interactions using data recorded with the highly granular CALICE silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter (Si-W ECAL). Approximately 350,000 selected negative pion events at energies between 2 and 10 GeV have been studied. The predictions of several physics models available within the Geant4 simulation tool kit are compared to this data. A reasonable overall description of the data is observed; the Monte Carlo predictions are within 20 % of the data, and for many observables much closer. The largest quantitative discrepancies are found in the longitudinal and transverse distributions of the reconstructed energy. Based on the good control of the data set and general observables, the next step is to achieve a deeper understanding of hadronic interactions by studying the interaction zone and by reconstructing secondaries that emerge from the hadronic interaction in the Si-W ECAL.