Evaluación computacional de la contribución de la captura neutrónica por 14N a la dosis absorbida en una muestra de tejido enriquecido con 10B

Abstract

Tissue is primarily made up of elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. Among them, nitrogen has the largest neutron capture cross section. In a nitrogen neutron capture reaction (NNCR), an energetic proton is emitted that rapidly loses its energy along its path, and a high probability is expected that this released energy will be deposited within the tissue in question. Therefore, even if the percentage of nitrogen (by mass) is on the order of 3% in a typical tissue, its effect is significant and cannot be ignored. In this work, the 14N neutron capture reaction is simulated using the GEANT4 toolkit in order to characterize the reaction in terms of kinematic quantities, deposited energies, and secondary particle dose contribution. Finally, it was found that the absorbed dose associated with the secondary protons of the neutron capture reaction by nitrogen is between the values of 3.1×−14 Gy and 4.7×−14 Gy for energy values of the incident neutron beam between 0.025 and 1.000. eV, respectively. These values establish that the corresponding percentage value is about 17% of the total tissue-associated dose and the absorbed dose associated with secondary 14C atoms from the nitrogen neutron capture reaction is between 2.2×−15 and 3.4× −15 Gy for incident beam energies between 0.025 and 1.000 eV, respectively. These values establish that the corresponding percentage value is close to 1% of the total tissue-associated dose.