Speaker
Description
Monte Carlo simulation tools make use of models to describe the physics of everything that surrounds us. For such tools to be reliable, models as close to reality as possible need to be implemented in the simulation. Nuclear reaction cross-sections play an essential role in simulations for radiation protection in space. Therefore, a GSI-ESA-NASA collaboration project created a collection of total nucleus-nucleus reaction cross-sections, which have been experimentally measured over the last few decades*. The database has been made public and can be found at: https://gsi.de/fragmentation.
The data from the collection have been systematically compared to the cross-section models implemented in FLUKA, PHITS and Geant4, which are the most commonly used Monte Carlo codes for radiation protection in space. Such models are Tripathi, Kox, Shen, Kox–Shen, and Hybrid-Kurotama. An example of such a comparison for Fe-56 ions on C-12 target is shown in Figure 1.
Finally, literature gaps have been identified and considerations have been made about which models fit best the existing data for the most relevant systems to radiation protection in space and heavy-ion therapy.
*F Luoni et al 2021 New J. Phys. 23 101201, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ac27e1