Investigating the feasibility of TOPAS-nBio for Monte Carlo track structure simulations by adapting GEANT4-DNA examples application

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of TOPAS-nBio for track structure simulations using tuple scoring and ROOT/Python-based post-processing. Materials and methods. There are several example applications implemented in GEANT4-DNA demonstrating track structure simulations. These examples are not implemented by default in TOPAS-nBio. In this study, the tuple scorer was used to re-simulate these examples. The simulations contained investigations of different physics lists, calculation of energy-dependent range, stopping power, mean free path and W-value. Additionally, further applications of the TOPAS-nBio tool were investigated, focusing on physical interactions and deposited energies of electrons with initial energies in the range of 10–60 eV, not covered in the recently published GEANT4-DNA simulations. Low-energetic electrons are currently of great interest in the radiobiology research community due to their high effectiveness towards the induction of biological damage. Results. The quantities calculated with TOPAS-nBio show a good agreement with the simulations of GEANT4-DNA with deviations of 5% at maximum. Thus, we have presented a feasible way to implement the example applications included in GEANT4-DNA in TOPAS-nBio. With the extended simulations, an insight could be given, which further tracking information can be gained with the track structure code and how cross sections and physics models influence a particle’s fate. Conclusion. With our results, we could show the potentials of applying the tuple scorer in TOPAS-nBio Monte Carlo track structure simulations. Using this scorer, a large amount of information about the track structure can be accessed, which can be analyzed as preferred after the simulation.