@misc{10481/105580,
year = {2025},
month = {6},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/105580},
abstract = {A new model for the nuclear elastic scattering of protons below 250 MeV has been recently included in
FLUKA v4-4.0, motivated by the evaluation of radiation effects in electronics. Nonetheless, proton nuclear
elastic scattering plays a significant role also in proton dosimetry applications, for which the new model
necessitated an explicit validation. Therefore, in this work a benchmark has been carried out against a recent
measurement of radial-depth maps of absorbed dose in a water phantom under irradiation with protons of
100 MeV, 160 MeV, and 225 MeV. Two FLUKA versions have been employed to simulate these dose maps:
v4-3.4, relying on a legacy model for proton nuclear elastic scattering, and v4-4.0, relying on the new model.
The remarkable agreement between experimental absorbed doses and those simulated with FLUKA v4-4.0
(residual discrepancies are of at worst ∼1% on axis and ∼30% at the largest radial distances) is discussed, and
the role played by proton nuclear elastic scattering, among other interaction mechanisms, in various regions
of the radial-depth dose map is elucidated. Finally, the benchmark reported in this work is sensitive enough
to showcase the importance of accurately characterizing beam parameters and the scattering geometry for
reliably simulating the elastic and inelastic nuclear interactions in air which significantly contribute to the
absorbed dose out-of-field.},
organization = {Ministerio de Ciencia y Competitividad / ERDF (PID2019-104888GB-I00, PID2022-137543NB-I00)},
publisher = {Elsevier},
keywords = {Monte Carlo},
keywords = {FLUKA},
keywords = {Proton nuclear elastic scattering},
keywords = {Radial-depth dose map},
keywords = {Proton dosimetry},
title = {On the improved performances of FLUKA v4-4.0 in out-of-field proton dosimetry},
doi = {10.1016/j.radphyschem.2025.112947},
author = {Şerban, Alexandra-Gabriela and De la Torre González, Juan Alejandro and Anguiano Millán, Marta and Lallena Rojo, Antonio Miguel and Salvat-Pujol, Francesc},
}