The impact of new Geant4-DNA cross section models on electron track structure simulations in liquid water

Journal Article · Sat May 21 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4950808· OSTI ID:22596993

Šefl, M. ^[1]; Nourry, V.; Incerti, S. ^[2]

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1. Medical Physics Laboratory, University of Ioannina Medical School, Ioannina 45110 (Greece)
2. Université de Bordeaux, Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux-Gradignan, CENBG, Chemin du solarium, 33175 Gradignan, France and CNRS/IN2P3, Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux-Gradignan, CENBG, Chemin du solarium, 33175 Gradignan (France)

The most recent release of the open source and general purpose Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit (Geant4 10.2 release) contains a new set of physics models in the Geant4-DNA extension for improving the modelling of low-energy electron transport in liquid water (<10 keV). This includes updated electron cross sections for excitation, ionization, and elastic scattering. In the present work, the impact of these developments to track-structure calculations is examined for providing the first comprehensive comparison against the default physics models of Geant4-DNA. Significant differences with the default models are found for the average path length and penetration distance, as well as for dose-point-kernels for electron energies below a few hundred eV. On the other hand, self-irradiation absorbed fractions for tissue-like volumes and low-energy electron sources (including some Auger emitters) reveal rather small differences (up to 15%) between these new and default Geant4-DNA models. The above findings indicate that the impact of the new developments will mainly affect those applications where the spatial pattern of interactions and energy deposition of very-low energy electrons play an important role such as, for example, the modelling of the chemical and biophysical stage of radiation damage to cells.

• OSTI ID: 22596993
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 119, Issue 19; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CROSS SECTIONS
DNA
ELASTIC SCATTERING
ELECTRON SOURCES
ELECTRONS
ENERGY ABSORPTION
G CODES
IONIZATION
LIQUIDS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PARTICLE TRACKS
POINT KERNELS
RADIATION EFFECTS
SELF-IRRADIATION
TRANSPORT THEORY
WATER