Track “core” effects in heavy ion radiolysis

Abstract

By assuming that HO . 2 radical production in water and H 2 production in benzene are 2 hit processes, and applying the concepts of track physics, we are able to obtain a parameteric fit to the yields of these reactions by heavy ion radiolysis from knowledge of the radial dose distribution about a heavy ion's path. We make no use of the concept of a track core, for no clearly definable track core appears in our calculations of the radial dose distribution. Instead we calculate an action cross section σ from the assumed 2 hit response to γ-rays. The cross section is calculated from two fitted parameters, E 0, the γ-ray dose at which there is an average of 1 hit per target, and the target radius a 0. From the cross section, the target radius and the stopping power we calculate the G value. While our model is not mechanistic, the assumed 2 hit process is consistent with hypotheses which have been offered as chemical models for these processes. Since a 2 hit process is more likely to take place in a high dose region, close to an ion's path, it may easily be attributed to a hypothetical track core in energy deposition, when indeed the response is a property of the detector.