2011/09/12 by W. Ulmer, Ulmer, W. · 1 citation
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #Medical Physics (physics.med-ph) #Nuclear physics research studies #Radiation Therapy and Dosimetry #physics.med-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1109.2509
Preprint
arxiv created 2011/09/12 · openalex publication_date 2011/09/12 · arxiv updated 2011/09/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The conventional treatment of the Bethe-Bloch equation for protons accounts for electron capture at the end of the projectile track by the small Barkas correction. This is only a possible way for protons, whereas for light and heavier charged nuclei the exchange of energy and charge along the track has to be accounted for by regarding the projectile charge q as a function of the residual energy. This leads to a significant modification of the Bethe-Bloch equation, otherwise the range in a medium is incorrectly determined. The LET in the Bragg peak domain and distal end is significantly influenced by the electron capture. A rather significant result is that in the domain of the Bragg peak the superiority of carbon ions is reduced compared to protons.