Propagation of Swift Protons in Liquid Water and Generation of Secondary Electrons in Biomaterials

  • Pablo de Vera
  • Rafael Garcia-Molina
  • Isabel Abril
Chapter
First Online:

Abstract

A proper description of the propagation of a swift proton beam through biomaterials, accounting for the energy deposited as well as the geometrical evolution of the beam as a function of the target depth and nature, is a crucial issue in proton therapy. For this purpose, simulation is a very adequate tool, since the most relevant interactions that take place between the projectile and the target constituents (electrons and nuclei) can be conveniently accounted for in a controlled manner. In this chapter an overview and relevant results for hadron therapy are presented of the simulations we have developed using the code SEICS (Simulation of Energetic Ions and Clusters through Solids), which combines Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics, to follow in detail the motion and energy deposition of swift protons through targets of hadron therapeutic interest, mainly liquid water. The main interactions considered in our study are of elastic nature (affecting mainly the projectile’s direction) and inelastic processes (leading to either nuclear reactions or electronic energy loss). The performance of the code, as well as the quality of its main input, namely the stopping force for proton beams in liquid water (which is the main tissue constituent), are benchmarked by comparing the results of the simulations with available experimental proton energy spectra as a function of the detection angle after traversing a micrometric liquid water jet. The excellent agreement with experiments validates the SEICS code, which we can use then to study several problems of interest for proton therapy, including the calculation of depth-dose curves and lateral dose profiles, the energy evolution of the proton beam along the target, as well as the production of secondary electrons at the Bragg peak in relevant biomaterials.

Keywords

Liquid Water Proton Beam Bragg Peak Energy Loss Function Dielectric Formalism 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgements

Illuminating and fruitful discussions with many collaborators are acknowledged. Most of the research presented in this paper was developed under the warm and stimulating atmosphere of the COST Action MP 1002, Nanoscale Insights into Ion Beam Cancer Therapy. During the last revision of this work we heard of the death of Helmut Paul, an excellent friend and a better scientist, to whom we dedicate this work. We thank partial financial support by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Project FIS2014-58849-P) and the Murcia Regional Agency of Science and Technology (project 19907/GERM/15). PdV acknowledges financial support from the European Union’s FP7-People Program (Marie Curie Actions) within the Initial Training Network No. 608163 “ARGENT”.

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Pablo de Vera
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
  • Rafael Garcia-Molina
    • 4
  • Isabel Abril
    • 5
  1. 1.Department of Physical SciencesThe Open UniversityMilton KeynesUK
  2. 2.MBN Research CenterFrankfurt am MainGermany
  3. 3.School of Mathematics and PhysicsQueen’s University BelfastNorthern IrelandUK
  4. 4.Departamento de Física – Centro de Investigación en Óptica y NanofísicaRegional Campus of International Excellence “Campus Mare Nostrum”, Universidad de MurciaMurciaSpain
  5. 5.Departament de Física AplicadaUniversitat d’AlacantAlacantSpain

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