Advances in space radiation physics and transport at NASA.

The space radiation environment is a complex mixture of particle types and energies originating from sources inside and outside of the galaxy. These environments may be modified by the heliospheric and geomagnetic conditions as well as planetary bodies and vehicle or habitat mass shielding. In low Earth orbit (LEO), the geomagnetic field deflects a portion of the galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and all but the most intense solar particle events (SPE).

SHIELD and HZETRN Comparisons of Pion Production Cross Sections.

A program of comparing American (NASA) and Russian (ROSCOSMOS) space radiation transport codes has recently begun, and the first paper directly comparing the NASA and ROSCOSMOS space radiation transport codes, HZETRN and SHIELD respectively has recently appeared. The present work represents the second time that NASA and ROSCOSMOS calculations have been directly compared, and the focus here is on models of pion production cross sections used in the two transport codes mentioned above. It was found that these models are in overall moderate agreement with each other and with experimental data.

Comparing HZETRN, SHIELD, FLUKA and GEANT transport codes.

For the first time, the American (NASA) and Russian (ROSCOSMOS) space radiation transport codes, HZETRN and SHIELD respectively, are directly compared to each other. Calculations are presented for Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) minimum Hydrogen, Oxygen and Iron projectiles incident on a uniform Aluminum cylinder of varying thickness. Comparisons are made for the flux spectra of neutrons, light ions (Z≤ 2), heavy ions (Z> 2) and pions emitted from the back of the Aluminum cylinder.

Dependence of simulated positron emitter yields in ion beam cancer therapy on modeling nuclear fragmentation.

In ion beam cancer therapy, range verification in patients using positron emission tomography (PET) requires the comparison of measured with simulated positron emitter yields. We found that (1) changes in modeling nuclear interactions strongly affected the positron emitter yields and that (2) Monte Carlo simulations with SHIELD-HIT10Areasonably matched the most abundant PET isotopes (11)C and (15)O. We observed an ion-energy (i.

The impact of modeling nuclear fragmentation on delivered dose and radiobiology in ion therapy.

The importance of nuclear interactions for ion therapy arises from the influence of the particle spectrum on, first, radiobiology and therefore also on treatment planning, second, the accuracy of measuring dose and, third, the delivered dose distribution. This study tries to determine the qualitative as well as the quantitative influence of the modeling of inelastic nuclear interactions on ion therapy. Thereby, three key disciplines are investigated, namely dose delivery, dose assessment and radiobiology.

Evaluation of nuclear reaction cross-sections and fragment yields in carbon beams using the SHIELD-HIT Monte Carlo code. Comparison with experiments.

In light ion therapy, the knowledge of the spectra of both primary and secondary particles in the target volume is needed in order to accurately describe the treatment. The transport of ions in matter is complex and comprises both atomic and nuclear processes involving primary and secondary ions produced in the cascade of events. One of the critical issues in the simulation of ion transport is the modeling of inelastic nuclear reaction processes, in which projectile nuclei interact with target nuclei and give rise to nuclear fragments.

Optimizing SHIELD-HIT for carbon ion treatment.

The SHIELD-HIT Monte Carlo transport code has been widely used in particle therapy, but has previously shown some discrepancies, when compared with experimental data. In this work, the inelastic nuclear cross sections of SHIELD-HIT are calibrated to experimental data for carbon ions. In addition, the models for nuclear fragmentation were adjusted to experiments, for the partial charge-changing cross section of carbon ions in water.

Recent improvements in the SHIELD-HIT code.

Purpose: The SHIELD-HIT Monte Carlo particle transport code has previously been used to study a wide range of problems for heavy-ion treatment and has been benchmarked extensively against other Monte Carlo codes and experimental data. Here, an improved version of SHIELD-HIT is developed concentrating on three objectives, namely: Enhanced functionality, improved efficiency, and a modification of employed physical models. METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS: SHIELD-HIT (currently at version '10A') is now equipped with an independent detector geometry, ripple filter implementations, and it is capable of using accelerator control files as a basis for the primaries.

Fluence correction factors and stopping power ratios for clinical ion beams.

Background: In radiation therapy, the principal dosimetric quantity of interest is the absorbed dose to water. Therefore, a dose conversion to dose to water is required for dose deposited by ion beams in other media. This is in particular necessary for dose measurements in plastic phantoms for increased positioning accuracy, graphite calorimetry being developed as a primary standard for dose to water dosimetry, but also for the comparison of dose distributions from Monte Carlo simulations with those of pencil beam algorithms.

Analytical expressions for water-to-air stopping-power ratios relevant for accurate dosimetry in particle therapy.

In particle therapy, knowledge of the stopping-power ratio (STPR) of the ion beam for water and air is necessary for accurate ionization chamber dosimetry. Earlier work has investigated the STPR for pristine carbon ion beams, but here we expand the calculations to a range of ions (1 ≤ z ≤ 18) as well as spread-out Bragg peaks (SOBPs) and provide a theoretical in-depth study with a special focus on the parameter regime relevant for particle therapy. The Monte Carlo transport code SHIELD-HIT is used to calculate complete particle-fluence spectra which are required for determining the STPR according to the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Monte Carlo simulations on the water-to-air stopping power ratio for carbon ion dosimetry.

Many papers discussed the I value for water given by the ICRU, concluding that a value of about 80 +/- 2 eV instead of 67.2 eV would reproduce measured ion depth-dose curves. A change in the I value for water would have an effect on the stopping power and, hence, on the water-to-air stopping power ratio, which is important in clinical dosimetry of proton and ion beams.

Simulation of secondary particle production and absorbed dose to tissue in light ion beams.

During radiation therapy with an ion beam, the production of secondary particles like neutrons, protons and heavier ions contribute to the dose delivered to tumour and healthy tissues outside the treated volume. Also, the secondary particles leaving the patient are of interest for radiation background around the ion-therapy facility. Calculations of secondary particle production and the dose absorbed by water, soft tissue and a multi-material phantom simulating the heterogeneous media of the patient body were performed for protons, helium, lithium and carbon ions in the energy range up to 400 MeV u(-1).

Ion beam transport in tissue-like media using the Monte Carlo code SHIELD-HIT.

The development of the Monte Carlo code SHIELD-HIT (heavy ion transport) for the simulation of the transport of protons and heavier ions in tissue-like media is described. The code SHIELD-HIT, a spin-off of SHIELD (available as RSICC CCC-667), extends the transport of hadron cascades from standard targets to that of ions in arbitrary tissue-like materials, taking into account ionization energy-loss straggling and multiple Coulomb scattering effects. The consistency of the results obtained with SHIELD-HIT has been verified against experimental data and other existing Monte Carlo codes (PTRAN, PETRA), as well as with deterministic models for ion transport, comparing depth distributions of energy deposition by protons, 12C and 20Ne ions impinging on water.

Secondary particle production in tissue-like and shielding materials for light and heavy ions calculated with the Monte-Carlo code SHIELD-HIT.

The Monte Carlo code SHIELD has been modified into a version named SHIELD-HIT which extends the transport of hadron cascades in shielding materials to that of ions in tissue-like materials, and includes ion energy-loss straggling, multiple scattering, track-length calculations and production of secondary particles, which includes all generations, for ion interactions with the media. Calculations using SHIELD-HIT have been performed for 1H, 12C and 26Fe ions with energies up to 1000 MeV/u transported through water, soft tissue and aluminium. These have been validated by comparing Monte Carlo results with experimental data and results from other Monte Carlo codes for ion transport.