The influence of Geant4-DNA toolkit parameters on electron microdosimetric track structure

Abstract

Abstract The influence of different physical process factors on tracks of low-energy electrons in liquid water was analyzed and evaluated based on the Geant4-DNA toolkit of Geant4 version 10.4, and it provides theoretical support for obtaining the basic parameters of microdosimetry concerned with radiotherapy and radiation protection. According to the characteristics of different models, five physics constructors of Geant4-DNA toolkit were selected to simulate monoenergetic electrons in microscopic scale. Details of track structure of different Geant4-DNA physics constructors were compared, including total number of interaction processes, number and energy percentage of excitation and ionization; analyzing the impacts of mean lineal energy of several factors, including Geant4-DNA physics constructors, initial energy, radius of scoring spheres, interaction processes and cut-off energy. Firstly, ‘G4EmDNAPhysics’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘dna’) is well consistent with ‘G4EmDNAPhysics_option 2’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘option 2’), and ‘G4EmDNAPhysics_option 4’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘option 4’) is well consistent with ‘G4EmDNAPhysics_option 5’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘option 5’); secondly, there are differences for the information of track structure and mean lineal energy between ‘option 2’ ‘option 4’ and ‘G4EmDNAPhysics_option 6’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘option 6’); thirdly, the influence of the model on the mean lineal energy decreases with the increase of the radius of the scoring spheres, whereas mean lineal energy increases as the tracking cut increases. Several alternative discrete physics constructors of Geant4-DNA are comprehensively discussed overlaying multiple perspectives under different conditions in this work.