Toward the Clinical Application of the Prompt Gamma-Ray Timing Method for Range Verification in Proton Therapy

The prompt gamma-ray timing (PGT) method offers a relatively simple approach for range verification in proton therapy. Starting from the findings of previous experiments, several steps toward a clinical application of PGT have been performed in this work. First of all, several scintillation materials have been investigated in the context of PGT. The time resolution was determined at high photon energies in the MeV-region. In conclusion, the fast and bright scintillator CeBr3 is the material of choice in combination with a timing photomultiplier tube as light detector. A second study was conducted at Universitäts Protonen Therapie Dresden (UPTD) to characterize the proton bunch structure of a clinical beam concerning its time width and relative arrival time. The data is mandatory as input for simulation studies and to correct for phase drifts. The obtained data could furthermore be used for the first 2D imaging of a heterogeneous phantom based on prompt gamma-rays. In a last step, a PGT prototype system was designed using the findings from the first two studies. The prototype system is based on a newly developed digital spectrometer and a CeBr3 detector. The device is characterized at the ELBE bremsstrahlung beam. It was verified that the prototype operates within the specifications concerning time and resolution as well as throughput rate. Finally, for the first time the PGT system was used under clinical conditions in the treatment room of UPTD. Here, PGT data was obtained from the delivery of a three-dimensional treatment plan onto PMMA phantoms. The spot-by-spot analysis helped to investigate the performance of the prototype device under clinical conditions. As a result, range variations of 5 mm could be detected for the first time with an uncollimated system at clinically relevant doses. To summarize, the obtained results help to bring PGT closer to a clinical application

CyclicRainbow - A multivariate Signature Scheme with a Partially Cyclic Public Key based on Rainbow

Multivariate Cryptography is one of the alternatives to guarantee the security of communication in the post-quantum world. One major drawback of such schemes is the huge size of their keys. In \cite{PB10} Petzoldt et al. proposed a way how to reduce the public key size of the UOV scheme by a large factor. In this paper we extend this idea to the Rainbow signature scheme of Ding and Schmidt \cite{DS05}. By our construction it is possible to reduce he size of the public key by up to 62 \verb!%!

Selecting Parameters for the Rainbow Signature Scheme - Extended Version -

Multivariate public key cryptography is one of the main approaches to guarantee the security of communication in a post-quantum world. One of the most promising candidates in this area is the Rainbow signature scheme, which was first proposed by J. Ding and D. Schmidt in 2005. In this paper we develop a model of security for the Rainbow signature scheme. We use this model to find parameters for Rainbow over GF(16), GF(31) and GF(256) which, under certain assumptions, guarantee the security of the scheme for now and the near future

Range assessment in particle therapy based on prompt gamma-ray timing measurements

Proton and ion beams open up new vistas for the curative treatment of tumors, but adequate technologies for monitoring the compliance of dose delivery with treatment plans in real time are still missing. Range assessment, meaning the monitoring of therapy-particle ranges in tissue during dose delivery (treatment), is a continuous challenge considered a key for tapping the full potential of particle therapies. In this context the paper introduces an unconventional concept of range assessment by prompt-gamma timing (PGT), which is based on an elementary physical effect not considered so far: therapy particles penetrating tissue move very fast, but still need a finite transit time-about 1-2 ns in case of protons with a 5-20 cm range-from entering the patient's body until stopping in the target volume. The transit time increases with the particle range. This causes measurable effects in PGT spectra, usable for range verification. The concept was verified by proton irradiation experiments at the AGOR cyclotron, KVI-CART, University of Groningen. Based on the presented kinematical relations, we describe model calculations that very precisely reproduce the experimental results. As the clinical treatment conditions entail measurement constraints (e.g. limited treatment time), we propose a setup, based on clinical irradiation conditions, capable of determining proton range deviations within a few seconds of irradiation, thus allowing for a fast safety survey. Range variations of 2 mm are expected to be clearly detectable

Toward the Clinical Application of the Prompt Gamma-Ray Timing Method for Range Verification in Proton Therapy

The prompt gamma-ray timing (PGT) method offers a relatively simple approach for range verification in proton therapy. Starting from the findings of previous experiments, several steps toward a clinical application of PGT have been performed in this work. First of all, several scintillation materials have been investigated in the context of PGT. The time resolution was determined at high photon energies in the MeV-region. In conclusion, the fast and bright scintillator CeBr3 is the material of choice in combination with a timing photomultiplier tube as light detector. A second study was conducted at Universitäts Protonen Therapie Dresden (UPTD) to characterize the proton bunch structure of a clinical beam concerning its time width and relative arrival time. The data is mandatory as input for simulation studies and to correct for phase drifts. The obtained data could furthermore be used for the first 2D imaging of a heterogeneous phantom based on prompt gamma-rays. In a last step, a PGT prototype system was designed using the findings from the first two studies. The prototype system is based on a newly developed digital spectrometer and a CeBr3 detector. The device is characterized at the ELBE bremsstrahlung beam. It was verified that the prototype operates within the specifications concerning time and resolution as well as throughput rate. Finally, for the first time the PGT system was used under clinical conditions in the treatment room of UPTD. Here, PGT data was obtained from the delivery of a three-dimensional treatment plan onto PMMA phantoms. The spot-by-spot analysis helped to investigate the performance of the prototype device under clinical conditions. As a result, range variations of 5 mm could be detected for the first time with an uncollimated system at clinically relevant doses. To summarize, the obtained results help to bring PGT closer to a clinical application

Table of Contents A Multivariate Signature Scheme with an almost cyclic public key..................... 2

Multivariate public key cryptography is one of the main approaches to guarantee the security of communication in a post quantum world. One of the major drawbacks in this area is the huge size of the public key. In this paper we present a new idea to create a multivariate signature scheme with an almost cyclic public key. The scheme is very similar to the UOV-Scheme of Kipnis and Patarin but reduces the size of the public key by about 83 \verb!%!

Cryptanalysis of 2-Layer Nonlinear Piece in Hand Method

Part 1: Modern CryptographyInternational audiencePiece in Hand method is a security enhancement method for Multivariate Public Key Cryptosystems (MPKCs). Since 2004, many types of this method have been proposed. In this paper, we consider the 2-layer nonlinear Piece in Hand method as proposed by Tsuji et al. in 2009. The key point of this method is to introduce an invertible quadratic polynomial map on the plaintext variables to construct perturbation of the original MPKC. Through our analysis, we find that the security of the enhanced scheme is mainly relying on the quadratic polynomials of this auxiliary map. The two examples proposed by Tsuji et al. for this map can not resist the Linearization Equation attack. Given a valid ciphertext, we can easily get a public key which is equivalent to the original MPKC. If there is an algorithm that can recover the plaintext corresponding to a valid ciphertext of the original MPKC, we can construct an algorithm that can recover the plaintext corresponding to a valid ciphertext of the enhanced MPKC

Towards provable security of the Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar signature scheme under direct attacks

In this paper we show that solving systems coming from the public key of the Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar (UOV) signature scheme is on average at least as hard as solving a certain quadratic system with completely random quadratic part. In providing lower bounds on direct attack complexity we rely on the empirical fact that complexity of solving a non-linear polynomial system is determined by the homogeneous part of this system of the highest degree. Our reasoning explains, in particular, the results on solving the UOV systems presented by J.-C. Faugere and L. Perret at the SCC conference in 2008