Simulations of Radioactive Decays: an Application of Low-Energy Electromagnetic Packages for the Nuclear Medicine

Abstract

Problems of the radiobiology and the nuclear medicine require clarifying the specifi cs of radionuclides interactions with unhealthy cells. In this work we aimed to simulate emitting particles tracks of radionuclides and their radioactive decays at DNA level inside the cell nucleus. Accordingly, using the Monte Carlo-based track structure simulation technique, we estimated the radial distribution of deposited energy and kinetic energy spectra of electrons produced by primary particles resulting from radioactive decays of diff erent radionuclides within cell nucleus. To address the possibility of DNA damage, we performed the cluster analysis of track structures of emitted particles inside the volumes corresponding to the size of the native double-stranded DNA. For this purpose, G4-RadioactiveDecay and low- energy electromagnetic packages form Geant4 Monte-Carlo toolkit were combined together. Besides, a comparative analysis was performed for various low-energy electromagnetic packages as G4-DNA and G4-Livermore

Keywords

• Medical radionuclides
• Geant4
• stochastic energy depositions