Abstract: Monte Carlo simulations play a crucial role for in-vivo treatment monitoring based on PET and prompt gamma imaging in proton and carbon-ion therapies. The accuracy of the nuclear fragmentation models implemented in these codes might affect the quality of the treatment verification. In this paper, we investigate the nuclear models implemented in GATE/Geant4 and FLUKA by comparing the angular and energy distributions of secondary particles exiting a homogeneous target of PMMA. Comparison results were restricted to fragmentation of O-16 and C-12. Despite the very simple target and set-up, substantial discrepancies were observed between the two codes. For instance, the number of high energy (>1 MeV) prompt gammas exiting the target was about twice as large with GATE/Geant4 than with FLUKA both for proton and carbon ion beams. Such differences were not observed for the predicted annihilation photon production yields, for which ratios of 1.09 and 1.20 were obtained between GATE and FLUKA for the proton beam and the carbon ion beam, respectively. For neutrons and protons, discrepancies from 14% (exiting protons-carbon ion beam) to 57% (exiting neutrons-proton beam) have been identified in production yields as well as in the energy spectra for neutrons.

Abstract: Compton Cameras emerged as an alternative for real-time dose monitoring techniques for Particle Therapy (PT), based on the detection of prompt-gammas. As a consequence of the Compton scattering process, the gamma origin point can be restricted onto the surface of a cone (Compton cone). Through image reconstruction techniques, the distribution of the gamma emitters can be estimated, using cone-surfaces backprojections of the Compton cones through the image space, along with more sophisticated statistical methods to improve the image quality. To calculate the Compton cone required for image reconstruction, either two interactions, the last being photoelectric absorption, or three scatter interactions are needed. Because of the high energy of the photons in PT the first option might not be adequate, as the photon is not absorbed in general. However, the second option is less efficient. That is the reason to resort to spectral reconstructions, where the incoming. energy is considered as a variable in the reconstruction inverse problem. Jointly with prompt gamma, secondary neutrons and scattered photons, not strongly correlated with the dose map, can also reach the imaging detector and produce false events. These events deteriorate the image quality. Also, high intensity beams can produce particle accumulation in the camera, which lead to an increase of random coincidences, meaning events which gather measurements from different incoming particles. The noise scenario is expected to be different if double or triple events are used, and consequently, the reconstructed images can be affected differently by spurious data. The aim of the present work is to study the effect of false events in the reconstructed image, evaluating their impact in the determination of the beam particle ranges. A simulation study that includes misidentified events (neutrons and random coincidences) in the final image of a Compton Telescope for PT monitoring is presented. The complete chain of detection, from the beam particle entering a phantom to the event classification, is simulated using FLUKA. The range determination is later estimated from the reconstructed image obtained from a two and three-event algorithm based on Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization. The neutron background and random coincidences due to a therapeutic-like time structure are analyzed for mono-energetic proton beams. The time structure of the beam is included in the simulations, which will affect the rate of particles entering the detector.

Abstract: Using a nonrelativistic constituent quark model in which the degrees of freedom are quarkantiquark and meson- meson components, we have recently shown that the Dd((*))K thresholds play an important role in lowering the mass of the c (S) over bar states associated with the physical D-s0(*)(2317) and D-s1(2460) mesons. This observation is also supported by other theoretical approaches such as latticeregularized QCD or chiral unitary theory in coupled channels. Herein, we extend our computation to the lowest P- wave Bs mesons, taking into account the corresponding J(P) = 0(+), 1(-) and 2(+) bottomstrange states predicted by the naive quark model and the BK and B* K thresholds. We assume that mixing with B-s((*))eta and isospin-violating decays to B-s((*))pi are negligible. This computation is important because there is no experimental data in the b (S) over bar sector for the equivalent j(q)(p) = 1/2(+) (D-s0(*)(2317), D-s1 (2460)) heavy-quark multiplet and, as it has been seen in the c (s) over bar sector, the naive theoretical result can be wrong by more than 100 MeV. Our calculation allows us to introduce the coupling with the D-wave B*K channel and to compute the probabilities associated with the different Fock components of the physical state.