Differential cross-sections measurements for hadrontherapy: 50 MeV/A ¹²C reactions on H, C, O, Al and ^natTi targets

¹ LPC-Caen, ENSICAEN, Université de Caen Normandie, CNRS/IN2P3, Caen, France
² Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Strasbourg, France

^a e-mail: divay@lpccaen.in2p3.fr

Published online: 13 September 2017

Abstract

In order to keep the benefits of a carbon treatment, the dose and biological effects induced by secondary fragments must be taken into account when simulating the treatment plan. These Monte-Carlo simulations codes are done using nuclear models that are constrained by experimental data. It is hence necessary to have precise measurements of the production rates of these fragments all along the beam path and for its whole energy range. In this context, a series of experiments aiming to measure the double differential fragmentation cross-sections of carbon on thin targets of medical interest has been started by our collaboration. In March 2015, an experiment was performed with a 50 MeV/nucleon ¹²C beam at GANIL. During this experiment, energy and angular differential cross-section distributions on H, C, O, Al and ^natTi have been measured. In the following, the experimental set-up and analysis process are briefly described and some experimental results are presented. Comparisons between several exit channel models from Phits and Geant4 show great discrepancies with the experimental data. Finally, the homemade Sliipie model is briefly presented and preliminary results are compared to the data with a promising outcome.