Monte Carlo Study of Nuclear Fragmentation in Water Irradiated with Protons and 12C Ions for Particle Therapy Applications

Abstract

In this study, the nuclear fragmentation of the secondary particles produced when water is irradiated with protons and carbons were investigated. Proton beams with varying incident energies of 100 MeV, 130 MeV, 150 MeV and 160 MeV were used with corresponding 12C ion beams of about 187.50 MeV/u, 241.67 MeV/u, 285.42 MeV/u and 308.33 MeV/u respectively. The kinetic energy distribution and energy deposition of primary and secondary particles were studied via Monte Carlo simulation with the aid of GATE v.8.0 via GEANT4 simulation toolkit version 10.3.2 with 1 x 106 incident beams. The physics list used was QGSP_BIC (Quark Gluon String Pre-compound Binary Cascade). When the primary 12C ion and proton beams interact with water, secondary light-charged and heavy-charged particles are produced with atomic number Z > 2 are produced. In general, it was shown that the incident 12C ions are less scattered as they traverse mater compared to the incident protons. Thus, the energy deposition of 12C ions is well-defined and is better in terms of conformation.