Affiliations: Department of Radiation Oncology, Peggy and Charles
Stephenson Cancer Center, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center,
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Salahuddin Ahmad, Ph.D., Department of
Radiation Oncology, Peggy and Charles Stephenson Cancer Center, The University
of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 800 N.E. 10th St., OKCC L100, Oklahoma
City, OK 73104, USA. Tel.: +1 405 271 5641 ext. 37833; Fax: +1 405 271 8297;
E-mail: salahuddin-ahmad@ouhsc.edu
Abstract: A Monte Carlo application is developed to investigate the yields of
positron-emitting nuclei (PEN) used for proton and carbon ion range
verification techniques using the GEANT4 Toolkit. A base physics list was
constructed and used to simulate incident proton and carbon ions onto a PMMA or
water phantom using pencil like beams. In each simulation the total yields of
PEN are counted and both the PEN and their associated positron
depth-distributions were recorded and compared to the incident radiation's
Bragg Peak. Alterations to the physics lists are then performed to investigate
the PEN yields dependence on the choice of physics list. In our study, we
conclude that the yields of PEN can be estimated using the physics list
presented here for range verification of incident proton and carbon ions.
