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Nuclear interactions of 160 MeV protons stopping in copper: A test of Monte Carlo nuclear models
Author(s) -
Gottschalk Bernard,
Platais Rachel,
Paganetti Harald
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.598799
Subject(s) - monte carlo method , physics , nuclear physics , proton , stack (abstract data type) , proton therapy , nuclear data , nuclear reaction , atomic physics , neutron , computer science , mathematics , statistics , programming language
To estimate the influence of nuclear interactions on dose or biological effect one uses Monte Carlo programs which include nuclear models. We introduce an experimental method to check these models at proton therapy energies. We have measured the distribution of charge deposited by 160 MeV protons stopping in a stack of insulated copper plates. A buildup region ahead of the main peak contains ≈20% of the total charge and is entirely due to charged secondaries from inelastic nuclear interactions. The acceptance for charged secondaries is 100%. Therefore the data are a good benchmark for nuclear models. We have simulated the stack using GEANT with two nuclear models. FLUKA agrees fairly well with the measurement but GHEISHA , designed for much higher energies, does not. The experimental method will work for many other materials, including insulators. Therefore it can also be used for light nuclei.