Goupil: A Monte Carlo engine for the backward transport of low-energy gamma-rays

Abstract

Goupil is a software library designed for the Monte Carlo transport of low-energy gamma-rays, such as those emitted from radioactive isotopes. The library is distributed as a Python module. It implements a dedicated backward sampling algorithm that is highly effective for geometries where the source size largely exceeds the detector size. When used in conjunction with a conventional Monte Carlo engine (i.e., Geant), the response of a scintillation detector to gamma-active radio-isotopes scattered over the environment is accurately simulated (to the nearest percent) while achieving events rates of a few kHz (with a ~2.3 GHz CPU).