Double di ffential fragmentation cross sections measurements of 95 MeV/u 12C on thin targets for hadrontherapy

TL;DR

This paper reports new measurements of double differential fragmentation cross sections of 12C at 95 MeV/u on various thin targets, crucial for improving dose prediction in carbon ion therapy.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed experimental data on double differential cross sections of 12C at 95 MeV/u for multiple targets relevant to hadrontherapy.

Findings

Measured cross sections for 12C fragmentation at 95 MeV/u.

Angular distributions of secondary fragments obtained.

Systematic error analysis performed.

Abstract

During therapeutic treatment with heavy ions like carbon, the beam undergoes nuclear fragmentation and secondary light charged particles, in particular protons and alpha particles, are produced. To estimate the dose deposited into the tumors and the surrounding healthy tissues, an accurate prediction on the fluences of these secondary fragments is necessary. Nowadays, a very limited set of double di ffential carbon fragmentation cross sections are being measured in the energy range used in hadrontherapy (40 to 400 MeV/u). Therefore, new measurements are performed to determine the double di ffential cross section of carbon on di erent thin targets. This work describes the experimental results of an experiment performed on May 2011 at GANIL. The double di ffential cross sections and the angular distributions of secondary fragments produced in the 12C fragmentation at 95 MeV/u on thin targets (C, CH2, Al, Al2O3, Ti and PMMA) have been measured. The experimental setup will be precisely described, the systematic error study will be explained and all the experimental data will be presented.