Secondary particles contribution

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1

Dear experts,

I have encountered an issue. I would like to compare the contributions of different secondary particles to the absorbed dose during proton irradiation of water. I am not entirely clear on how FLUKA handles the issue of production thresholds. For instance, if the production threshold for electrons is 100 keV, electrons below this threshold will not be statistically produced but instead, the corresponding energy will be locally deposited. In this case, should the deposited energy be attributed to electrons or considered as a contribution from protons?

Thank you.

2

Dear Qinqin Cheng,

Supposing you have primary protons traversing a material with electrons production cuts of 100 keV, then the energy of all electrons (delta-rays) that should have been theoretically produced below that threshold will be an energy deposit attributed to the proton. FLUKA cannot attribute this energy to the electrons because they are not even generated in the simulation.