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A comparison of carbon ions versus protons for integrated mode ion imaging
Incorporating image guidance into ion beam therapy is critical for minimizing beam range uncertainties and realizing the modality's potential. One promising avenue for image guidance is to capture transmission ion radiographs (iRads) before and/or during treatment. iRad image quality is typically maximized using a single-event imaging system, which involves tracking individual ions, albeit the approach is generally not suited to clinical beam settings. An alternative faster and clinically compatible method is integrated mode imaging, where individual pencil beam data is acquired, rather than single ion data. To evaluate the usefulness of transmission ion imaging for image guidance, it is crucial to evaluate the image quality of integrated mode iRad systems.We report extensive image quality metrics of integrated mode carbon ion radiographs (cRads) and compare them with proton radiographs (pRads).iRads were obtained at the Marburg Ion Beam Therapy Center using a plastic volumetric scintillator equipped with CCD cameras. The detector captures orthogonal views of the 3D energy deposition in the scintillator from individual pencil beams. Four phantoms were scanned using a 15 × 15 cm 2 field of view and a beam spacing of 1 mm. First, 9 tissue-substitute inserts were used to evaluate water equivalent thickness (WET) accuracy. Radiographs of those inserts were reconstructed for beam spacings ranging from 1 to 7 mm to evaluate the impact of spacing on quantitative accuracy. For spatial resolution, custom 3D printed line pair (lp) modules ranging from 0.5 to 10 lp/cm were scanned. To evaluate low contrast detectability, a custom 3D printed low contrast module consisting of 20 holes with depths ranging from 1 to 8 mm and diameters from 1 to 10 mm was scanned. iRads of an anthropomorphic head phantom were also obtained.Spatial resolution and low contrast detection are systematically improved for cRads compared to pRads. Image resolution was 3.7 lp/cm for cRads and 1.7 lp/cm for pRads in the center of the field of view. Spatial resolution was found to vary with the object's location in the field of view. While pRads could mostly resolve low contrast holes of 10 mm in diameter, cRads could resolve holes of up in 4 mm diameter. WET accuracy is similar for both ion species, with a root mean squared error of approximately 1 mm. WET accuracy was stable (maximum of 0.1 mm increase) across beam spacings, although important under-sampling artifacts were observed for iRads reconstructed using large beam spacings, especially for cRads. iRads of the anthropomorphic head phantom showed improved apparent contrast using cRads, especially to identify bony structures.This work is the first investigation of image quality metrics such as spatial resolution and low contrast detectability for integrated mode cRads, with a full comparison with pRads. Enhanced image quality is obtained with cRads compared to pRads, although pRads still maintain high WET accuracy and deliver image quality within acceptable bounds
Exploring the onset of collectivity approaching N = 40 with masses of manganese isotopes
Re-Evaluating the V-Parameter: Insights into Spatio-Spectral Homogeneity in Nonlinear Post-Compression
The HEARTS EU Project and Its Initial Results on Fragmented High-Energy Heavy-Ion Single-Event Effects Testing
Suppression of neutral-pion production in deep-inelastic scattering off nuclei with the CLAS detector
Femtosecond X-ray cross-correlation analysis of disordered crystals forming in a supercooled atomic liquid
Simulation of the background from CO reaction in the JUNO scintillator
Large-scale organic liquid scintillator detectors are highly efficient in the detection of MeV-scale electron antineutrinos. These signal events can be detected through inverse beta decay on protons, which produce a positron accompanied by a neutron. A noteworthy background for antineutrinos coming from nuclear power reactors and from the depths of the Earth (geoneutrinos) is generated by () reactions. In organic liquid scintillator detectors, particles emitted from intrinsic contaminants such as U, Th, and Pb/Po, can be captured on C nuclei, followed by the emission of a MeV-scale neutron. Three distinct interaction mechanisms can produce prompt energy depositions preceding the delayed neutron capture, leading to a pair of events correlated in space and time within the detector. Thus, () reactions represent an indistinguishable background in liquid scintillator-based antineutrino detectors, where their expected rate and energy spectrum are typically evaluated via Monte Carlo simulations. This work presents results from the open-source SaG4n software, used to calculate the expected energy depositions from the neutron and any associated de-excitation products. Also simulated is a detailed detector response to these interactions, using a dedicated Geant4-based simulation software from the JUNO experiment. An expected measurable CO event rate and reconstructed prompt energy spectrum with associated uncertainties, are presented in the context of JUNO, however, the methods and results are applicable and relevant to other organic liquid scintillator neutrino detectors