NEST (Noble Element Simulation Technique) is an unprecedentedly comprehensive, accurate, and precise simulation of the excitation, ionization, and corresponding scintillation and electroluminescence processes in liquid noble elements, useful for direct dark matter detectors, double beta decay searches, PET scans, and general radiation detection technology. NEST has been verified as robust against a long list of past experimental results. Read more on the About NEST page.

To join the NEST e-mail listhost sign up here: http://solid.physics.ucdavis.edu/mailman/listinfo/nest

Download the software package on the Download NEST page. You must read and accept certain terms (mostly, to cite us and list any code changes you make in your published works).

(Recorded NEST tutorials)

To use NEST and then publish results from your experiment where you compare with it, you must cite the DOI link provided by Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/record/1314669) which incorporates the NEST publications below, and if you use the Geant4 integration then the latest G4 overview publications as well would be a good idea:

  • Geant4 Developments and Applications, J. Allison et al., IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 53 No. 1 (2006) 270-278.
  • Geant4 - A Simulation Toolkit, S. Agostinelli et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods A 506 (2003) 250-303.

Analysis Reports

Publications and Presentations

NEST Papers:

Here are some slides of talks that have been given describing the NEST software (though the first two date back to when NEST did not yet have a name):

NEST Posters: