Technical Note: Improvements in GEANT4 energy-loss model and the effect on low-energy electron transport in liquid water
- Centre d’Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux-Gradignan, CENBG, Chemin du Solarium, Université de Bordeaux, Gradignan 33175, France and Centre d’Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux-Gradignan, CENBG, Chemin du Solarium, CNRS/IN2P3, Gradignan 33175 (France)
- Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Saint Joseph University, Mkalles, Beirut (Lebanon)
Purpose: The GEANT4-DNA physics models are upgraded by a more accurate set of electron cross sections for ionization and excitation in liquid water. The impact of the new developments on low-energy electron transport simulations by the GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit is examined for improving its performance in dosimetry applications at the subcellular and nanometer level. Methods: The authors provide an algorithm for an improved implementation of the Emfietzoglou model dielectric response function of liquid water used in the GEANT4-DNA existing model. The algorithm redistributes the imaginary part of the dielectric function to ensure a physically motivated behavior at the binding energies, while retaining all the advantages of the original formulation, e.g., the analytic properties and the fulfillment of the f-sum-rule. In addition, refinements in the exchange and perturbation corrections to the Born approximation used in the GEANT4-DNA existing model are also made. Results: The new ionization and excitation cross sections are significantly different from those of the GEANT4-DNA existing model. In particular, excitations are strongly enhanced relative to ionizations, resulting in higher W-values and less diffusive dose-point-kernels at sub-keV electron energies. Conclusions: An improved energy-loss model for the excitation and ionization of liquid water by low-energy electrons has been implemented in GEANT4-DNA. The suspiciously low W-values and the unphysical long tail in the dose-point-kernel have been corrected owing to a different partitioning of the dielectric function.
- OSTI ID:
- 22413606
- Journal Information:
- Medical Physics, Vol. 42, Issue 7; Other Information: (c) 2015 American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-2405
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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