Title :
Geant4 applications and developments for medical physics experiments
Author :
Rodrigues, Pedro ; Moura, Rui ; Ortigão, Catarina ; Peralta, Luís ; Pia, Maria Grazia ; Trindade, Andreia ; Varela, João
Author_Institution :
Laboratorio de Instrumentacao e Fisica Exp. de Particulas, Lisboa, Portugal
Abstract :
The Geant4 Monte Carlo radiation transport toolkit provides the basic services and infrastructure required for the development of flexible simulation frameworks and applications, which have found generalized use in high energy physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and medical physics research. Object-oriented design provides the possibility to implement or modify any physics process in Geant4 without changing other parts of the code. This feature makes Geant4 open to extension of its physics modeling capabilities and to the implementation of alternative physics models. In this paper, the development of a simulation platform for performance studies and detector optimization of the Clear-PEM scanner, a high-performance positron emission mammography prototype, and the implementation of precise low energy bremsstrahlung angular generators for the Geant4 LowE category are described.
Keywords :
Monte Carlo methods; bremsstrahlung; high energy physics instrumentation computing; mammography; optimisation; GEANT4 Monte Carlo radiation transport toolkit; astrophysics research; clear-PEM scanner; detector optimization; high energy physics research; high-performance positron emission mammography; low energy bremsstrahlung angular generator; medical physics experiment; medical physics research; nuclear physics research; object-oriented design; performance study; physics modeling; Biomedical imaging; Detectors; Mammography; Medical simulation; Monte Carlo methods; Object oriented modeling; Photonic crystals; Physics; Radioactive decay; Virtual prototyping;
Journal_Title :
Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TNS.2004.832314