DESIGN, SIMULATION AND PERFORMANCES STUDY OF THE FOOT EXPERIMENT

Abstract

Nuclear fragmentation processes induced by the interaction of hadrons and nuclei with matter are of great interest not only in fundamental physics research but also in applied physics, particularly in particle therapy and space radioprotection. Particle therapy is a novel technique in which solid tumors are treated with charged light ions beams by reason of their favorable depth-dose deposition profile. As a consequence of nuclear interactions between the beam particles and the patient tissues, during irradiation a large amount of secondary fragments is produced. Both projectile (if Zbeam>1) and target fragmentation can occur. Space radioprotection, instead, aims to develop effective shields to preserve astronauts from the harmful effects of ionizing space radiation. In long duration and far from Earth space missions, the exposure to galactic cosmic rays leads to an abundant production of neutrons and other nuclear fragments originating from the interactions with the spaceship shields which must be considered. In both cases, nuclear fragmentation can highly affect the particle yields and the energy spectrum, which are mandatory for the calculation of the particle transport and the estimation of the dose. The main goal of the FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) experiment is to measure fragment production cross sections for energies, beams and targets of interest for therapy and for radioprotection in space. In addition, these results will help the further development of Monte Carlo models. To this aim, a dedicated experimental setup is currently under development. The main purpose of this work is the construction and the maintenance of an accurate and reliable Monte Carlo simulation of the setup, on basis of the FLUKA code, focusing especially on the study of design and expected performances of the electronic setup. Also the fragment reconstruction capabilities of the setup are investigated by means of a dedicated analysis software developed within the collaboration.