Hadronic models and experimental data for the neutrino beam production

The predictions of meson production by 450 GeV/c protons on Be using the Monte Carlo FLUKA standalone and GEANT-FLUKA and GEANT-GHEISHA in GEANT are compared with available experimental measurements. The comparison enlightens the improvements of the hadronic generator models of the present standalone code FLUKA with respect to the 1992 version which is embedded into GEANT-FLUKA. Worse results were obtained with the GHEISHA package. A complete simulation of the SPS neutrino beam line at CERN showed significant variations in the intensity and composition of the neutrino beam when FLUKA standalone instead of the GEANT-FLUKA package is used to simulate particle production in the Be target.