M. Anguiano

Monte Carlo simulation of the electron transport through thin slabs: A comparative study of penelope, geant3, geant4, egsnrc and mcnpx

Abstract The Monte Carlo simulation of the electron transport through thin slabs is studied with five general purpose codes: penelope , geant 3, geant 4, egs nrc and mcnpx . The different material foils analyzed in the old experiments of Kulchitsky and Latyshev [L.A. Kulchitsky, G.D. Latyshev, Phys. Rev. 61 (1942) 254] and Hanson et al. [A.O. Hanson, L.H. Lanzl, E.M. Lyman, M.B. Scott, Phys. Rev. 84 (1951) 634] are used to perform the comparison between the Monte Carlo codes. Non-negligible differences are observed in the angular distributions of the transmitted electrons obtained with the some of the codes. The experimental data are reasonably well described by egs nrc, penelope (v.2005) and geant 4. A general good agreement is found for egs nrc and penelope (v.2005) in all the cases analyzed.

Tensor and tensor-isospin terms in the effective Gogny interaction

We discuss the need of including tensor terms in the effective Gogny interaction used in mean-field calculations. We show in one illustrative case that, with the usual tensor term that is employed in the Skyrme interaction (and that allows us to separate the like-nucleon and the neutron-proton tensor contributions), we can describe the evolution of the N=28 neutron gap in calcium isotopes. We propose to include a tensor and a tensor-isospin term in finite-range interactions of Gogny type. The parameters of the two tensor terms allow us to treat separately the like-nucleon and the neutron-proton contributions. Two parameterizations of the tensor terms have been chosen to reproduce different neutron single-particle properties in the 48Ca nucleus and the energy of the first 0- state in the 16O nucleus. By employing these two parameterizations we analyze the evolution of the N=14, 28, and 90 neutron energy gaps in oxygen, calcium and tin isotopes, respectively. We show that the combination of the parameters governing the like-nucleon contribution is crucial to correctly reproduce the experimental (where available) or shell-model trends for the evolution of the three neutron gaps under study.

Benchmark of PENELOPE for low and medium energy X-rays

The Monte Carlo code penelope is benchmarked for X-ray beams with energies between 30 and 300 keV. The results of different simulations performed with penelope are compared with those obtained with a semi-empirical computational model and with experimental measurements. Half-value layer indexes obtained from the attenuation curves for Al and Cu and depth dose curves in water have been considered for this comparison. A good agreement is reached on what guarantees the feasibility of the code.

Study of the formalism used to determine the absorbed dose for low-energy x-ray beams

We have studied the procedure commonly recommended by dosimetry protocols for the determination of the absorbed dose in water for low-energy x-rays beams, generated with potentials up to 150 kVp. X-ray beams with different spectra obtained with the XCOMP5R code were transported using the Monte Carlo code PENELOPE in order to calculate backscatter factors and mass-energy absorption coefficients. We have analyzed the uncertainty in the absorbed doses, calculated using the half-value layer to characterize the x-ray beams, due to the uncertainties in both backscatter factors and mass-energy absorption coefficients. We have found that this uncertainty is larger than 5% and can reach values above 11% for some HVL(1) values. The characterization of these doses with the homogeneity coefficient or the generating potential, in addition to the half-value layer is also studied. Using HVL(1) and the kVp, the absorbed dose to water can be reproduced to within 3% for all spectra.

Tensor effective interaction in self-consistent random-phase approximation calculations

We present a study of the effects of the tensor-isospin term of the effective interaction in Hartree-Fock and random-phase approximation calculations. We used finite-range forces of Gogny type, and we added to them a tensor-isospin term which behaves, at large internucleonic distances, as the analogous term of the microscopic interactions. The strength of this tensor force has been chosen to reproduce the experimental energy of the lowest 0{sup -} excited state in {sup 16}O, which shows large sensitivity to this term of the interaction. With these finite-range interactions, we have studied the effects of the tensor-isospin force in ground and excited states of carbon, oxygen, calcium, nickel, zirconium, tin, and lead isotopes. Our results show that the tensor force affects mainly the nucleon single-particle energies. However, we found some interesting cases where also bulk nuclear properties are sensitive to the tensor interaction.

Monte Carlo simulation using the PENELOPE code with an ant colony algorithm to study MOSFET detectors

In this work we have developed a simulation tool, based on the PENELOPE code, to study the response of MOSFET devices to irradiation with high-energy photons. The energy deposited in the extremely thin silicon dioxide layer has been calculated. To reduce the statistical uncertainties, an ant colony algorithm has been implemented to drive the application of splitting and Russian roulette as variance reduction techniques. In this way, the uncertainty has been reduced by a factor of approximately 5, while the efficiency is increased by a factor of above 20. As an application, we have studied the dependence of the response of the pMOS transistor 3N163, used as a dosimeter, with the incidence angle of the radiation for three common photons sources used in radiotherapy: a (60)Co Theratron-780 and the 6 and 18 MV beams produced by a Mevatron KDS LINAC. Experimental and simulated results have been obtained for gantry angles of 0 degrees, 15 degrees, 30 degrees, 45 degrees, 60 degrees and 75 degrees. The agreement obtained has permitted validation of the simulation tool. We have studied how to reduce the angular dependence of the MOSFET response by using an additional encapsulation made of brass in the case of the two LINAC qualities considered.

Tensor parameters in Skyrme and Gogny effective interactions: Trends from a ground-state-focused study

Recent ground-state-focused studies of the tensor effects in the mean-field framework are our starting point. On the basis of phenomenological arguments, we indicate regions for acceptable values of the parameters that are associated with the tensor effective forces within both the Skyrme and the Gogny models. We identify acceptable signs and values of the parameters by making an adjustment on the neutron

Characterizing the human postural control system using detrended fluctuation analysis

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A simple analytical expression to calculate the backscatter factor for low energy X-ray beams

spin-orbit splitting for the nuclei

Self-consistent Continuum Random Phase Approximation calculations with finite-range interactions

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