Yields of positron and positron emitting nuclei for proton and carbon ion radiation therapy: A simulation study with GEANT4

Abstract

A Monte Carlo application is developed to investigate the yields of positron-emitting nuclei (PEN) used for proton and carbon ion range verification techniques using the GEANT4 Toolkit. A base physics list was constructed and used to simulate incident proton and carbon ions onto a PMMA or water phantom using pencil like beams. In each simulation the total yields of PEN are counted and both the PEN and their associated positron depth-distributions were recorded and compared to the incident radiation's Bragg Peak. Alterations to the physics lists are then performed to investigate the PEN yields dependence on the choice of physics list. In our study, we conclude that the yields of PEN can be estimated using the physics list presented here for range verification of incident proton and carbon ions.