Geant4 physics processes for microdosimetry simulation: design foundation and implementation of the first set of models

New physical processes specific for microdosimetry simulation are under development in the Geant4 Low Energy Electromagnetic package. The first set of models implemented for this purpose cover the interactions of electrons, protons and light ions in liquid water; they address a physics domain relevant to the simulation of radiation effects in biological systems, where water represents an important component. The design developed for effectively handling particle interactions down to a low energy scale and the physics models implemented in the first public release of the software are described

Models of biological effects of radiation in the Geant4 toolkit

A project, named Geant4-DNA, is in progress to extend the Geant4 simulation toolkit to model the effects of radiation with biological systems at cellular and DNA level. The first component implemented in the first development cycle of the project describes the fractional survival of a population of cells irradiated with photons or charged particles. The software system developed provides the user the option to choose among a small set of alternative models for the calculation of mammalian cell survival after irradiation. The flexible design adopted makes the system open to further extension to implement other cell survival models available in literature. The preliminary design of a prototype of the cell survival models implemented and preliminary results in some selected cell lines are described

Geant4 Physics Processes for Microdosimetry Simulation : Design Foundation and Implementation of the First Set of Models

New physical processes specific for microdosimetry simulation are under development in the Geant4 Low Energy Electromagnetic package. The first set of models implemented for this purpose cover the interactions of electrons, protons and light ions in liquid water; they address a physics domain relevant to the simulation of radiation effects in biological systems, where water represents an important component. The design developed for effectively handling particle interactions down to a low energy scale and the physics models implemented in the first public release of the software are described

Models of biological effects of radiation in the Geant4 Toolkit

A project, named Geant4-DNA, is in progress to extend the Geant4 simulation toolkit to model the effects of radiation with biological systems at cellular and DNA level. The first component implemented in the first development cycle of the project describes the fractional survival of a population of cells irradiated with photons or charged particles. The software system developed provides the user the option to choose among a small set of alternative models for the calculation of mammalian cell survival after irradiation. The flexible design adopted makes the system open to further extension to implement other cell survival models available in literature. The preliminary design of a prototype of the cell survival models implemented and preliminary results in some selected cell lines are described

Monte Carlo simulation of interactions of radiation with biological systems at the cellular and DNA levels : the Geant4-DNA Project

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Monte Carlo simulation of electromagnetic interactions of radiation with liquid water in the framework of the Geant4-DNA project

A set of processes specialized for the simulation of particle interactions with water has been developed in the Geant4 Low Energy Electromagnetic package. The models cover the interactions of electrons, protons and light ions down to the electronVolt energy scale. They address a physics domain relevant to the simulation of radiation effects in biological systems, where water represents an important component. The software design, the physics models implemented and an overview of their tests are described

Recent developments in Geant4

International audienc