Simulating the Scintillating Cosmic Ray Eliminating ENsemble (SuNSCREEN) for reducing cosmic background in experiments relevant for the p-process

Naturally occurring, proton rich isotopes that cannot be produced in the s- or r- neutron capture processes are called p-nuclei. Their nucleosynthesis proceeds by the p-process; a process that is still not well understood. This process may be studied by measuring (p,$\gamma )$ and ($\alpha $,$\gamma )$ reactions using the Summing NaI(TI) detector (SuN) created at NSCL. The SuN detector uses a summing technique where all the gamma rays emitted from a single compound nucleus are summed into one peak that can then be analyzed. One problem with this method is the background created by cosmic rays at high-energy regions of the gamma spectrum. To counteract this drawback a veto detector, SuNSCREEN (Scintillating Cosmic Ray Eliminating Ensemble), is being developed to reduce this cosmic ray background. The present work was centered on producing a simulation of SuNSCREEN and cosmic rays utilizing GEANT4 software and the comparison of these simulations to experimental data.