1 | |
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2 | ========================================================= |
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3 | Geant4 - Hadrontherapy example |
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4 | ========================================================= |
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5 | |
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6 | README file |
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7 | ---------------------- |
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8 | |
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9 | AUTHORS |
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10 | |
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11 | G.A.P. CIRRONE(a *), G.CUTTONE(a), F. DI ROSA(a), G.RUSSO(a) |
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12 | a. Laboratori Nazionali del Sud - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare |
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13 | 95123 Catania, Italy |
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14 | * e-mail:cirrone@lns.infn.it |
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15 | |
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16 | M.G. PIA(b) |
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17 | b. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Genova Via Dodecaneso, 33 |
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18 | 16146, Genova, Italy |
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19 | |
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20 | A. LECHNER (c) |
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21 | c. CERN, Switzerland |
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22 | |
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23 | More informations on the Hadrontherapy example can be found in the |
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24 | Hadrontherapy Documentation available at http://www.ge.infn.it/geant4/examples/ |
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25 | |
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26 | Alternatevely send an e-mail to cirrone@lns.infn.it. |
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27 | |
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28 | |
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29 | ---->0. INTRODUCTION. |
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30 | |
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31 | The hadrontherapy example simulates a hadron therapy beam line. |
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32 | In particular the example models the specific proton therapy beam line |
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33 | installed at Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (INFN) in Catania, Sicily (Italy). |
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34 | For more information on the proton therapy center of Catania |
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35 | or/and proton/hadron therapy in general, please visit the |
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36 | pages: |
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37 | http://www.lns.infn.it/catanaweb/catana/ |
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38 | |
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39 | ---->1. GEOMETRY SET-UP. |
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40 | |
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41 | The elements simulated are: |
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42 | |
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43 | 1. A scattering system, to spread geometrically the beam; |
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44 | |
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45 | 2. A system of collimators, to avoid the scattering radiation; |
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46 | |
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47 | 3. A modulation system that spreads the beam in energy and |
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48 | produces the so-called spread out bragg peak; |
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49 | It is constituted by a rotating wheel of different thichnesses. |
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50 | The wheel rotates around is axis (parallel to the proton |
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51 | beam axis) and its movement can be obtained by means of a |
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52 | messenger between runs. |
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53 | |
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54 | 4. A set of monitor chambers (special transmission ionisation |
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55 | chambers used to control hadron flux during the irradiation); |
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56 | |
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57 | 5. A "nozzle" and a final collimator defining the final shape |
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58 | of the beam before reaching the patient. |
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59 | |
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60 | 6. A water phantom: it is a box of water where the energy deposit is |
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61 | calculated. |
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62 | The use of the water phantom is required by the international protocol |
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63 | on the measure of dose in the case of proton and ion beams (IAEA 398, 2000). |
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64 | |
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65 | ---->2. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP. |
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66 | |
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67 | The application simulates the proton therapy beam line |
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68 | installed at Laboratori Nazionali del Sud. |
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69 | The default beam line is a typical treatment line composed by several elements all |
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70 | devoted to create the so-called "terapeutical beam", i.e. a beam ideal |
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71 | for a radiotherapeutic treatment. |
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72 | |
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73 | The main elements are: |
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74 | ** The COLLIMATORS: placed along the beam line to collimate the beam; |
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75 | |
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76 | ** The RANGE SHIFTERS: to decrease the energy of the primary proton beam |
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77 | to a specific value; |
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78 | |
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79 | ** The MODULATOR WHEEL: to modulate the energy of the primary and monoenergetic |
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80 | beam in to a wide spectrum. The energy modulation is necessary to |
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81 | homogeneusly irradiate a tumour volume that can extends in depth |
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82 | up to 20 mm; |
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83 | |
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84 | ** The MONITOR CHAMBERS: very thin ionisation chamber that permit the |
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85 | dose monitoring during the patient irradiation; |
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86 | |
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87 | ** The PATIENT COLLIMATOR: a brass, tumour-shaped collimator able to |
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88 | confine the proton irradiation field in order to irradiate just the tumour mass |
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89 | in the trasverse direction; |
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90 | |
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91 | The user has the possibility to vary, via messenger, almost all the geometrical |
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92 | characteristics of the beam line elements (i.e. their position along the beam line, |
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93 | their thickness, etc.). More details on the available user messengers can be |
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94 | found in the Hadronterapy Documentation (http://www.ge.infn.it/geant4/examples/). |
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95 | |
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96 | At the end of the beam line, a typical water phantom is reproduced. |
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97 | A user-defined region of the phantom is divided (via the ROGeomtry class) in |
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98 | cubic and identical voxels. The voxels size can be varied. At the end of the simulation |
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99 | the energy deposited by primary protons, and secondaries in each voxel |
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100 | is collected. This information is available as an .hbk file (if the |
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101 | G4ANALYSIS_USE variable is defined). |
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102 | |
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103 | The default sizes of the active voxelized region are 40x40x40 mm corresponding |
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104 | to a matric of 80x80x80 cubic voxels each with a lateral dimension of 0.5 mm. |
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105 | |
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106 | ---->3. SET-UP |
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107 | |
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108 | - a standard Geant4 example GNUmakefile is provided |
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109 | |
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110 | setup with: |
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111 | compiler = gcc-3.2.3 |
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112 | G4SYSTEM = linux-g++ |
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113 | |
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114 | The following section reports the necessary environment variables |
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115 | necessary for the run of Hadrontherapy. |
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116 | |
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117 | ---->3.1 ENVIROMENT VARIABLES |
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118 | |
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119 | - G4SYSTEM = Linux-g++ |
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120 | |
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121 | - G4INSTALL points to the installation directory of GEANT4; |
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122 | |
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123 | - G4LIB point to the compiled libraries of GEANT4; |
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124 | |
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125 | - G4WORKDIR points to the work directory; |
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126 | |
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127 | - CLHEP_BASE_DIR points to the installation directory of CHLEP; |
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128 | |
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129 | - G4LEVELGAMMADATA points to the photoevaporation library; |
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130 | |
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131 | - NeutronHPCrossSections points to the neutron data files; |
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132 | |
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133 | - G4RADIOACTIVEDATA points to the libraries for radio-active decay |
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134 | hadronic processes; |
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135 | |
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136 | - G4LEDATA points to the low energy electromagnetic libraries |
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137 | |
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138 | - LD_LIBRARY_PATH = $CLHEP_BASE_DIR/lib |
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139 | |
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140 | ---->3.2 VISUALISATION |
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141 | |
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142 | The user can visualise the experimental set-up with OpenGL, DAWN and vrml |
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143 | |
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144 | ---->4. HOW TO RUN THE EXAMPLE |
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145 | |
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146 | In interactive mode: |
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147 | > $G4WORDIR/bin/Linux-g++/Hadrontherapy |
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148 | The defaultMacro.mac is executed |
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149 | |
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150 | The primary particle beam parameter are: |
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151 | Radiation: proton beam; |
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152 | Energy distribution: gaussian; |
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153 | Mean energy: 63.4 MeV; |
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154 | Energy spread: 300 keV; |
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155 | Beam spot size: 1 mm; |
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156 | Beam angular spread: 0.057 deg; |
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157 | |
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158 | The modulator wheel can be rotated via the messenger: |
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159 | |
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160 | Idle>/modulator/angle/xx deg |
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161 | |
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162 | To produce a Spread Out Bragg Peak using the modulator a macro |
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163 | (modulatorMacro.mac) is provided. With this macro the modulator is |
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164 | rotated of 360 degree at 1 deg steps. In each run 1000 protons are |
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165 | generated as primary particles. Obviously a bigger resolution can be obtained |
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166 | with smaller angles or increasing the protons number in each run. |
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167 | |
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168 | Modulator wheel can be omitted setting its material air. |
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169 | |
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170 | run $G4WORKDIR/bin/Linux-g++/Hadrontherapy visualisationMacro.mac |
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171 | to visualise the experimental set-up with OpenGL |
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172 | |
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173 | ---->5. PHYSICS |
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174 | |
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175 | Both electromagnetic and hadronic physic processes are activated for |
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176 | the particles of the experimental set-up. |
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177 | Different physics models can be activated by the user interactively. |
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178 | |
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179 | Examples of activation are provided in the macro files starting |
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180 | with the string "physics": |
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181 | |
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182 | All possible physics options are summarized in the file |
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183 | physicsAllOptions.mac. |
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184 | |
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185 | Different options concerning electromagnetic interactions of protons |
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186 | and neutrons can be tested with the files: |
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187 | physicsElectromagneticICRU49.mac |
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188 | physicsElectromagneticZiegler77.mac |
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189 | physicsElectromagneticZiegler85.mac |
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190 | |
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191 | Different options concerning hadronic interactions of protons and |
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192 | neutrons can be tested with the files: |
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193 | physicsHadronicBertini.mac |
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194 | physicsHadronicBinary.mac |
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195 | physicsHadronicLEP.mac |
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196 | physicsHadronicPrecompound.mac |
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197 | |
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198 | NOTE: Apart from the different models for protons and neutrons, a user |
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199 | can also select among several interaction models for particles like |
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200 | electrons or photons. All possible options are listed in the file |
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201 | physicsAllOptions.mac. |
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202 | |
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203 | ---->6. SIMULATION OUTPUT |
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204 | |
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205 | The output is an .hbk file (hadrontherapy.hbk) produced |
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206 | if the variable G4ANALYSIS_USE is set to 1 and the analysis tool (AIDA |
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207 | interface) correctly installed. |
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208 | The file contains an histogram and an n-tuple. |
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209 | The histogram contains the Bragg curve: energy deposited |
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210 | by the proton beam (in MeV) versus the depth in water (in mm). |
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211 | The n-tuple contains the total 3D energy deposit in the phantom; the information |
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212 | is energy deposit in each voxel with respect to the position of the voxel. |
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213 | |
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214 | Setup for analysis: AIDA 3.2.1 |
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215 | |
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216 | Users can download the analysis tools from: |
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217 | http://aida.freehep.org/ |
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218 | |
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219 | Note that the same information can be stored in any different format. |
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220 | Please contact cirrone@lns.infn.it if you want store the information in |
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221 | a different format. |
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222 | |
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223 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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224 | |
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225 | for comments, advices, doubts and questions please contact: |
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226 | cirrone@lns.infn.it, giorgiorusso@lns.infn.it |
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227 | |
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228 | last modified: A. Lechner, 16/11/2007 |
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229 | |
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