GS02-1093 - Introduction to Medical Physics I

Basic Interactions
Problem Set 3.2c Solutions

1. (J & C 6-27) Evaluate Scoll for electrons in water for E = 400 keV using only the first
term inside the square brackets of J & C equation 6-26 and compare with the value
given in Table 6-3. Determine the important terms in the equation for electrons with
energies less than 0.5 MeV.

From equation 6-26, keeping only the first term in brackets, we have

0 E 2 (E + 2 0 )
S coll = 2r02 N e log
2 2 0 I
2

In this equation, the constants have the following values:

r02 square of the classical radius of the electron = 7.94 10-30 m2 p 170
Ne electron density of water = 3.343 10 el kg A-3b
26 -2

0 rest energy of the electron = 0.511 MeV

I mean excitation potential for water = 75.0 eV Table 6-2
ratio of electron velocity to that of light (=v/c) to be calculated

First, calculate the first term in the brackets:

E 2 (E + 2 0 ) 0.4 2 MeV 2 (0.4 MeV + 2 0.511 MeV )

log = log
20 I
2
2 0.511 MeV 75.0 10 (
-6 2
MeV 2 )
[
= log 39.58 10 6
]
= 17.50

We can determine from the kinetic energy of the electron. We note that the
kinetic energy E is given by

E = mc 2 m0 c 2
m0 c 2
= m0 c 2
1 2

1
= 0 1
1
2

Solving for 2 we obtain

 02
= 1
2

( E + 0 )2
0.511 MeV 2
= 1.000
(0.4 + 0.511)MeV 2
= 0.6854

Calculating the term in front of the brackets we have,

cm 2 electron kg 0.511 MeV

= 2 7.94 10 26 3.343 10 26 10 3
electron kg g 0.6854
MeV cm 2
= 0.1243
g

Calculating Scoll we have

MeV cm 2
S coll = 0.1243 17.50
g
MeV cm 2
= 2.175
g

Table 6-3 gives us a value of 2.148, which is very close.

Look at the terms in brackets, plugging in values for 0 and I:

E 2 (E + 1.022 )
1st term = log
(
1.022 75 10
6 2
)

E (E + 1.022 )
2
= log 8
0.5749 10
[ ]
= log 1.740 10 8 E 2 (E + 1.022 )
 E 2 8 - (2 E + 0.511)0.511 log 2
2nd term =
(E + 0.511)2
E 2 8 - 0.3541(2 E + 0.511)
=
(E + 0.511)2
3rd and 4th terms = 1 - 2
m 02
=
(E + m0 )2
0.2611
=
(E + 0.511)2

We can tabulate these terms as a function of energy as follows:

Scoll bracketed terms as function of energy
E (MeV) 1st term 2nd term 3rd & 4th terms
0.0 -- -0.693 1.000
0.1 14.485 -0.671 0.699
0.2 15.956 -0.628 0.516
0.3 16.846 -0.581 0.397
0.4 17.494 -0.535 0.315
0.5 18.008 -0.493 0.255
0.6 18.437 -0.454 0.212
0.7 18.805 -0.420 0.178
0.8 19.128 -0.388 0.152
0.9 19.417 -0.360 0.131
1.0 19.679 -0.335 0.114
We see here that for all energies (except perhaps very low energies), the first term
predominates, and also increases with increasing energy, while the remaining
terms decrease in magnitude.
2. (J & C 6-28) A beam of 1 MeV photons with a fluence of 104 photons per cm2
interacts with a 1 mm layer of water. Use J & C Figure 6-5 to determine the spectrum
of electrons set in motion. Now use J & C equation 6-40 to obtain the spectrum of
electrons seen at any point in the water. Plot the number per cm2 as a function of
energy and the number per LET interval.
This turned out to be a very difficult problem, and I have no confidence I have the
correct answer here, so you will be rewarded for effort, rather than results.

Rather than try to extract data from Figure 6-5, let us start with the equation for
d(E)/dE as a function of electron energy E for 1 MeV photons. This quantity is
given by equation (c) in J & C problem 6-35.

d ( E ) 3 0 2E E2 E2
= 2 + +
8 h (h E ) (h E ) h (h E )
2 2
dE

In this equation, 0 is the total Thomson scattering cross section, and is equal to
66.525 1030 m2, and is the photon energy divided by the rest mass of the
electron, or h (MeV)/0.511. For photons of energy 1 MeV, is 1.957, and the
differential energy cross section is given by

d (E ) 3 66.525 10 30 m 2 2E E2 E2
= 2 + +
dE 8 1.957 MeV electron 1.957(1 E ) 3.830(1 E )2 (1 E )
E E
2
E2
= 12.748 10 30 m 2 electron 1 MeV 1 2 1.022 + 0.2611 +
1 E 1 E (1 E )
Tabulating the electron spectrum, we get the following

Electron spectrum from 1 MeV photons

E (MeV) E/(1-E) [(E/(1-E)]2 E2/(1-E) dsigma/dE x1030 (m2/MeV)
0.025 0.0256 0.0007 0.00064 25.1703
0.075 0.0811 0.0066 0.00608 24.5371
0.125 0.1429 0.0204 0.01786 23.9285
0.175 0.2121 0.0450 0.03712 23.3535
0.225 0.2903 0.0843 0.06532 22.8250
0.275 0.3793 0.1439 0.10431 22.3611
0.325 0.4815 0.2318 0.15648 21.9878
0.375 0.6000 0.3600 0.22500 21.7438
0.425 0.7391 0.5463 0.31413 21.6875
0.475 0.9048 0.8186 0.42976 21.9099
0.525 1.1053 1.2216 0.58026 22.5577
0.575 1.3529 1.8304 0.77794 23.8772
0.625 1.6667 2.7778 1.04167 26.3049
0.675 2.0769 4.3136 1.40192 30.6641
0.725 2.6364 6.9504 1.91136 38.6458
0.775 3.4444 11.8642 2.66944 54.1361
 0.796 3.9020 15.2253 3.10596 64.9266
The data is plotted below:

Differential cross section for free electron gas

100
Differential cross section (m2/electron-MeV)

10
0.0 0.5 1.0

Electron Energy (MeV)

Now we want to determine the spectrum of electron energies resulting from

slowing down of these electrons seen at any point in the 1 mm layer of water. If
the 1 mm layer were isolated, the observed spectrum would be essentially the
same as the distribution of initial electron energies. On the other hand, if the 1
mm layer were surrounded by water, electrons from all neighboring volumes, and
hence a complete slowing-down spectrum, would be observed. This spectrum can
be obtained by evaluating the following equation for each of the electron energies
in the table:

d (E ) (h ) dN (E ')
Emax

dE
=
S tot (E )
E
dE '
dE '

Approximate this integral with a sum as follows:

d (E ) (h ) N N (E j )
dE
=
Stot (E ) j =1 E
E j (1)

In the table below, the third column presents the value of Stot for each value of E.
(Actually, we are using Scoll as taken from J & C Table A-5, but we assume
radiative stopping power is negligible.) In the fourth column, we sum the
distribution of energies from the energy E to the maximum energy Ei, and in the
fifth column we calculate the slowing-down spectrum according to equation (1).

Electron slowing down spectrum

dsigma/dE x1030 Sum over Slowing-down
E (MeV) (m2/MeV) Stot(E) Energies spectrum
0.025 25.1703 11.4110 490.617 2.1498
0.075 24.5371 4.9350 465.447 4.7158
0.125 23.9285 3.6765 440.910 5.9963
0.175 23.3535 3.0155 416.981 6.9140
0.225 22.8250 2.6835 393.628 7.3342
0.275 22.3611 2.4645 370.803 7.5229
0.325 21.9878 2.3033 348.441 7.5641
0.375 21.7438 2.1998 326.454 7.4202
0.425 21.6875 2.1193 304.710 7.1891
0.475 21.9099 2.0618 283.022 6.8636
0.525 22.5577 2.0153 261.112 6.4784
0.575 23.8772 1.9798 238.555 6.0249
0.625 26.3049 1.9505 214.678 5.5031
0.675 30.6641 1.9275 188.373 4.8864
0.725 38.6458 1.9295 157.709 4.0868
0.775 54.1361 1.9565 119.063 1.2780
0.796 64.9266 1.9700 64.927
Finally, we need to plot the slowing-down spectrum as a function of LET. We
can obtain LET, or restricted stopping power values as a function of energy, from
J & C Table 6-4, and interpolate to get the energies in our original table. This is
shown in column 2 of the next table.

LET vs Energy
LET
E (MeV) (MeV/cm)
0.025 12.445
0.075 4.757
0.125 3.410
0.175 2.761
0.225 2.357
0.275 2.198
0.325 2.039
0.375 1.880
0.425 1.784
0.475 1.749
0.525 1.714
0.575 1.679
0.625 1.645
0.675 1.610
0.725 1.575
0.775 1.540
 0.796 1.523
The electronic energy distribution as a function of LET is given by

d (L ) d (E ) dE
=
dL dE dL

Retabulate the previous table to give energies as a function of uniformly spaced

LET values, use the table to calculate dE/dL, evaluate d/dE from the last column
of the table before the last one, and calculate the LET spectrum.

LET spectrum
LET
(MeV/cm) E (MeV) dE/dL dPhi/dE DPhi/dL
1.5 0.824 -0.973
2.0 0.337 -0.260 7.529 1.958
2.5 0.207 -0.101 7.185 0.728
3.0 0.157 -0.070 6.576 0.459
3.5 0.122 -0.037 5.911 0.220
4.0 0.103 -0.037 5.435 0.202
4.5 0.085 -0.022 4.960 0.110
5.0 0.073 -0.007 4.635 0.030
5.5 0.070 -0.007 4.468 0.029
6.0 0.067 -0.007 4.301 0.028
6.5 0.064 -0.007 4.134 0.027
7.0 0.060 -0.007 3.967 0.026
7.5 0.057 -0.007 3.800 0.025
8.0 0.054 -0.007 3.633 0.024
8.5 0.051 -0.007 3.466 0.023
9.0 0.047 -0.007 3.300 0.021
9.5 0.044 -0.007 3.133 0.020
10.0 0.041 -0.007 2.966 0.019
10.5 0.038 -0.007 2.799 0.018
11.0 0.034 -0.007 2.632 0.017
11.5 0.031 -0.007 2.465 0.016
12.0 0.028
3. (J & C 6-34) Show why protons and helium nuclei of the same energy per nucleon
will have the same range.

The range of a charged particle is given by

E0
dE
R= S (E )
0 tot

For each particle, the stopping power is approximately proportional to Z2/v2,

where v is the velocity of the particle. Because the atomic number of helium is
twice the atomic number of a proton, we have
2
Z H2 4 Z p
SH 2 = 2
vH vh
Z p2
Sp
v 2p

If Ep is the kinetic energy of a proton, then EH, the kinetic energy of the helium
nucleus, would be equal to 4Ep because the two particles are said to have the same
energy per nucleon. Because the mass of a helium nucleus is approximately 4
times the mass of the proton, we can write

M H vH2 = (4 M p )vH2 = 2 M p vH2

1 1
EH =
2 2
1
= 4 E p = 4 M p v 2p = 2 M p v 2p
2

So, vH = vp, and SH = 4Sp. Inserting these values into the integral for charged
particle range, we get
EH 4Ep
dE H dE p
RH =
0
SH
=
0
4S p
Rp

Thus the ranges are approximately the same.