E.B.

Podgorsak

Radiation Physics
for Medical Physicists

With 115 Figures and 37 Tables

- Springer
1
Contents

1 Introduction to Modern Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Fundamental Physical Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Derived Physical Constants and Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Milestones in Modern Physics and Medical Physics . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Physical Quantities and Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 Classification of Forces in Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1 .6 Classification of Fundamental Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.7 Classification of Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.8 Types and Sources of Directly Ionizing Radiation . . . . . . . . . 8
1 .8.1 Electrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1 .8.2 Positrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1 .8.3 Heavy Charged Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1 .8.4 Heavier Charged Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1 .8.5 Pions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1 .9 Classification of Indirectly Ionizing Photon Radiation . . . . . . 9
1.10 Radiation Quantities and Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.11 Dose in Water for Various Radiation Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1 .11 .1 Dose Distributions for Photon Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.11 .2 Dose Distributions for Neutron Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1 .11 .3 Dose Distributions for Electron Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1 .11 .4 Dose Distributions
for Heavy Charged Particle Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.12 Basic Definitions for Atomic Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.13 Basic Definitions for Nuclear Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.14 Nuclear Binding Energies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.15 Nuclear Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.15 .1 Liquid-Drop Nuclear Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.15.2 Shell Structure Nuclear Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1 .16 Physics of Small Dimensions and Large Velocities . . . . . . . . . 20
1.17 Planck's Energy Quantization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1 .18 Quantization of Electromagnetic Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1 .19 Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . 23
1 .20 Important Relativistic Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1 .20.1 Relativistic Mass m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
XIV Contents

1 .20.2 Relativistic Force F

and Relativistic Acceleration a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.20 .3 Relativistic Kinetic Energy Ej< . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.20.4 Total Relativistic E
as a Function of Momentum p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.20.5 Taylor Expansion for Relativistic Kinetic Energy
and Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.20 .6 Relativistic Doppler Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1 .21 Particle-Wave Duality: Davisson-Germer Experiment . . . . . . 30
1.22 Matter Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1 .22.1 Introduction to Wave Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
1 .22.2 Quantum-Mechanical Wave Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
1 .22.3 Time-Independent Schr6dinger Equation . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.22.4 Measurable Quantities and Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
1.23 Uncertainty Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
1.24 Complementarity Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
1.25 Tunneling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
1.25 .1 Alpha Decay Tunneling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
1.25 .2 Field Emission Tunneling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
1 .26 Maxwell's Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2 Rutherford-Bohr Atomic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.1 Geiger-Marsden Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.1.1 Parameters of the Geiger-Marsden Experiment . . . . 44
2.1 .2 Thomson's Atomic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.2 Rutherford Atom and Rutherford Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2 .2.1 Rutherford Model of the Atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.2.2 Kinematics of Rutherford Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.2.3 Differential Cross-Section
for Rutherford Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.2.4 Minimum and Maximum Scattering Angles . . . . . . . . 53
2.2.5 Total Rutherford Scattering Cross-Section . . . . . . . . . 54
2.2.6 Mean Square Scattering Angle
for Single Rutherford Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.2 .7 Mean Square Scattering Angle
for Multiple Rutherford Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
2.3 Bohr Model of the Hydrogen Atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2 .3.1 Radius of the Bohr Atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.3.2 Velocity of the Bohr Electron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2 .3.3 Total Energy of the Bohr Electron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.3.4 Transition Frequency and Wave Number . . . . . . . . . . 63
2 .3.5 Atomic Spectra of Hydrogen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.3.6 Correction for Finite Mass of the Nucleus . . . . . . . . . 64
2.3.7 Positronium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2 .3.8 Muonic Atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
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2 .3 .9 Quantum Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.3.10 Successes and Limitations
of the Bohr Atomic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.3.11 Correspondence Principle .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.4 Multi-electron Atoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
2.4.1 Exclusion Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
2.4.2 Hartree's Approximation
for Multi-electron Atoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
2.4.3 Periodic Table of Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
2.4.4 Ionization Potential of Atoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
2.5 Experimental Confirmation of the Bohr Atomic Model . . . . . 74
2 .5.1 Emission and Absorption Spectra
of Mono-Atomic Gases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2 .5 .2 Moseley's Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
2 .5 .3 Franck-Hertz Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
2 .6 Schrgdinger Equation for the Ground State of Hydrogen . . . 79
3 Production of X Rays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
3.1 X-Ray Line . Spectra (Characteristic Radiation) . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.1 .1 Characteristic Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.1 .2 Auger Effect and Fluorescent Yield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.2 Emission of Radiation by Accelerated Charged Particle
(Bremsstrahlung Production) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.2.1 Velocity of Charged Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.2.2 Electric and Magnetic Fields
Produced by Accelerated Charged Particles . . . . . . . . 94
3.2.3 Energy Density of the Radiation
Emitted by Accelerated Charged Particle . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.2.4 Intensity of the Radiation
Emitted by Accelerated Charged Particle . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.2.5 Power Emitted by Accelerated Charged Particle
Through Electromagnetic Radiation
(Classical Larmor Relationship) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.2.6 Relativistic Larmor Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.2.7 Relativistic Electric Field
Produced by Accelerated Charged Particle . . . . . . . . 98
3.2 .8 Characteristic Angle emak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.3 Synchrotron Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.4 Cerenkov Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.5 Practical Considerations in Production of Radiation . . . . . . . 105
3.6 Particle Accelerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
3 .6.1 Betatron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
3 .6 .2 Cyclotron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
3.6 .3 Microtron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
3.7 Linear Accelerator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
XVI Contents

3.7.1 Linac Generations . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . .. . . . . .. 110

3.7.2 Components of Modern Linacs . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . .. 111
3.7.3 Linac Treatment Head . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. 113
3.7.4 Configuration of Modern Linacs . ... . . . . . . . .. . . . .. 114

4 Two-Particle Collisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

4.1 Collisions of Two Particles : General Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.2 Nuclear Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.2 .1 Conservation of Momentum in Nuclear Reactions . . . 122
4.2.2 Conservation of Energy in Nuclear Reactions . . . . . . 122
4.2.3 Threshold Energy Ethr for Nuclear Reactions . . . . . . 123
4.3 Two-Particle Elastic Scattering: Energy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . 124
4.3.1 General Energy Transfer from Projectile m,,
to Target m2 in Elastic Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.3.2 Energy Transfer in a Two-Particle Elastic
Head-On Collision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
4 .4 Cross Sections for Elastic Scattering of Charged Particles . . 130
4.4.1 Differential Scattering Cross Section
for a Single Scattering Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
4.4.2 Effective Characteristic Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
4.4.3 Minimum and Maximum Scattering Angles . . . . . . . . 133
4.4.4 Total Cross Section for a Single Scattering Event . . . 134
4.4.5 Mean Square Angle for a Single Scattering Event . . . 135
4.4.6 Mean Square Angle for Multiple Scattering . . . . . . . . 135
4.5 Mass Angular Scattering Power for Electrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

5 Interactions of Charged Particles with Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

5.1 General Aspects of Stopping Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.2 Radiative Stopping Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
5.3 Collision Stopping Power for Heavy Charged Particles . . . . . 144
5.3.1 Momentum Transfer from Heavy Charged Particle
to Orbital Electron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
5.3.2 Linear Collision Stopping Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
5.3.3 Minimum Energy Transfer
and Mean Ionization-Excitation Potential . . . . . . . . . 149
5 .3.4 Maximum Energy Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.4 Mass Collision Stopping Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
5.5 Collision Stopping Power for Light Charged Particles . . . . . . 154
5.6 Total Mass Stopping Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
5.7 Bremsstrahlung (Radiation) Yield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
5 .8 Range of Charged Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
5.9 Mean Stopping Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
5.10 Restricted Collision Stopping Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
5.11 Bremsstrahlung Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
5.11 .1 Thin X-ray Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
 Contents XVII

5.11 .2 Thick X-ray Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

5.11 .3 Practical Aspects of Megavoltage X-ray Targets . . . . 165

6 Interactions of Neutrons with Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

6 .1 General Aspects of Neutron Interactions with Absorbers . . . 170
6 .2 Neutron Interactions with Nuclei of the Absorber . . . . . . . . . 171
6.2.1 Elastic Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
6.2.2 Inelastic Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
6.2.3 Neutron Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
6.2.4 Spallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
6.2.5 Fission Induced by Neutron Bombardment . . . . . . . . 173
6.3 Neutron Kerma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
6.4 Neutron Kerma Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
6.5 Neutron Dose Deposition in Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
6.5.1 Thermal Neutron Interactions in Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6.5.2 Interactions of Intermediate and Fast Neutrons
with Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
6.6 Neutron Beams in Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
6 .6.1 Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) . . . . . . . . . 180
6.6.2 Radiotherapy with Fast Neutron Beams . . . . . . . . . . . 182
6.6.3 Machines for Production
of Clinical Fast Neutron Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
6.6.4 Californium-252 Neutron Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
6.7 Neutron Radiography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

7 Interactions of Photons with Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

7.1 General Aspects of Photon Interactions with Absorbers . . . . 188
7.2 Thomson Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
7.3 Compton Scattering (Compton Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
7.3 .1 Relationship Between the Scattering Angle 0
and the Recoil Angle 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 196
7.3.2 Scattered Photon Energy hv'
as a Function of by and 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
7.3 .3 Energy Transfer to the Compton Recoil Electron . . . 198
7.3 .4 Differential Cross Section for Compton Scattering
deo-KNIdS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
7.3 .5 Differential Energy Transfer Cross Section
(dea.KN
)trldf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
7.3.6 Energy Distribution of Recoil Electrons
deo.KNIdEK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
7.3.7 Total Electronic Klein-Nishina Cross Section
for Compton Scattering o KN . . . .. . . . . . 204
7.3.8 Energy Transfer Cross Section --- for Compton . Effect
(eO-KN)t. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
7.3.9 Binding Energy Effects and Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . 207
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7.3.10 Mass Attenuation Coefficient for Compton Effect . . . 210

7.3 .11 Compton Mass Energy Transfer Coefficient . . . . . . . . 212
7 .4 Rayleigh Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
7.4.1 Differential Atomic Cross Sections
for Rayleigh Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
7.4.2 Form Factor F(x, Z) for Rayleigh Scattering . . . . . . . 215
7.4.3 Scattering Angles in Rayleigh Scattering . . . . . . . . . . 216
7.4.4 Atomic Cross Sections
for Rayleigh Scattering aaR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
7.4.5 Mass Attenuation Coefficient
for Rayleigh Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
7 .5 Photoelectric Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
7 .5.1 Atomic Cross Section for Photoelectric Effect . . . . . . 222
7.5.2 Angular Distribution of Photoelectrons . . . . . . . . . . . 223
7.5.3 Energy Transfer to Photoelectrons
in Photoelectric Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
7.5.4 Mass Attenuation Coefficient
for the Photoelectric Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
7 .5.5 Mass Energy Transfer Coefficient
for the Photoelectric Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
7.6 Pair Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
7 .6 .1 Conservation of Energy, Momentum and Charge
for Pair Production in Free Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
7.6 .2 Threshold Energy for Pair Production
and Triplet Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
7.6 .3 Energy Transfer to Charged Particles
in Pair Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
7.6 .4 Angular Distribution of Charged Particles . . . . . . . . . 230
7.6.5 Nuclear Screening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
7 .6.6 Atomic Cross Sections for Pair Production . . . . . . . . 230
7.6.7 Mass Attenuation Coefficient for Pair Production . . 233
7.6.8 Mass Energy Transfer Coefficient
for Pair Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
7.6.9 Positron Annihilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
7.7 Photonuclear Reactions (Photodisintegration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
7.8 General Aspects of Photon Interaction with Absorbers . . . . . 236
7.8 .1 Narrow Beam Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
7.8.2 Characteristic Absorber Thicknesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
7.8 .3 Other Attenuation Coefficients and Cross Sections . . 239
7.8.4 Broad Beam Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
7.8.5 Classification of Photon Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
7 .8.6 Mass Attenuation Coefficient
of Compounds and Mixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
7.8.7 Tabulation o£ Attenuation Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
 Contents XIX

7.8.8 Energy Transfer Coefficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 244

7.8.9 Energy Absorption Coefficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 248
7.8.10 Effects Following Photon Interactions . . . . . . . . . . .. . 250
7.9 Summary of Photon Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 250
7.10 Example 1 : Interaction of 2 MeV Photons with Lead . . . . . . . 253
7.11 Example 2: Interaction of 8 MeV Photons with Copper . .. . 256

8 Radioactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
8.2 Decay of Radioactive Parent into a Stable Daughter . . . . . . . 265
8.3 Radioactive Series Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
8 .3.1 Parent -+ Daughter - 3
Granddaughter Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
8 .3.2 Characteristic Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
8 .3.3 General Form of Daughter Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
8 .3.4 Equilibria in Parent-Daughter Activities . . . . . . . . . . 276
8 .3.5 Bateman Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
8 .3.6 Mixture of Two or More Independently Decaying
Radionuclides in a Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
8.4 Activation of Nuclides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
8 .4.1 Nuclear Reaction Cross Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
8 .4.2 Neutron Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
8 .4.3 Infinite Number of Parent Nuclei :
Saturation Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
8 .4.4 Finite Number of Parent Nuclei : Depletion Model . . 286
8 .4.5 Maximum Attainable Specific Activities
in Neutron Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
8 .4.6 Examples of Parent Depletion: Neutron Activation
of Cobalt-59, Iridium-191 and Molybdenum-98 . . . . . 296
8.4.7 Neutron Activation of the Daughter :
Depletion-Activation Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
8.4.8 Example of Daughter Neutron Activation :
Iridium-192 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
8.4.9 Practical Aspects of Radioactivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
8.5 Origin of Radioactive Elements (Radionuclides) . . . . . . . . . . . 312
8.5.1 Man-Made (Artificial) Radionuclides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
8.5.2 Naturally-Occuring Radionuclides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
8.5.3 Radionuclides in the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
8.6 General Aspects of Radioactive Decay Processes . . . . . . . . . . 314
8.7 Alpha Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
8.7.1 Decay Energy in a Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
8.7.2 Alpha Decay of Radium-226 into Radon-222 . . . . . . . 319
8.8 Beta Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
8.8.1 General Aspects of Beta Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
8.8.2 Beta Particle Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
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8.8.3 Daughter Recoil in a - and /3+ Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

8.9 Beta Minus Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
8.9.1 General Aspects of Beta Minus (Q - ) Decay . . . . . . . . 325
8.9.2 Beta Minus (/3- ) Decay Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
8.9 .3 Beta Minus (l3- ) Decay of Cobalt-60
into Nickel-60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
8.9.4 Beta Minus (3- ) Decay of Cesium-137
into Barium-137 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
8.10 Beta Plus Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
8.10.1 General Aspects of the Beta Plus (0 +) Decay . . . . . . 329
8.10.2 Decay Energy in 0+ Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
8 .10.3 Beta Plus (,(3+) Decay of Nitrogen-13
into Carbon-13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
8.10.4 Beta Plus (Q+ ) Decay of Fluorine-18
into Oxygen-18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
8.11 Electron Capture (EC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
8.11.1 Decay Energy in Electron Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
8.11.2 Recoil Kinetic Energy of the Daughter Nucleus
in Electron Capture Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
8.11.3 Electron Capture Decay of Beryllium-7
into Lithium-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
8.11.4 Decay of Iridium-192 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
8.12 Gamma Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
8.12 .1 General Aspects of Gamma ('y) Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
8.12.2 Emission of Gamma Rays in Gamma Decay . . . . . . . 337
8.12.3 Gamma Decay Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
8.12.4 Resonance Absorption and the M6ssbauer Effect . . . 338
8.13 Internal Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
8 .13.1 General Aspects of Internal Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . 339
8 .13.2 Internal Conversion Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
8.14 Spontaneous Fission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
8.15 Proton Emission Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
8.15.1 Decay Energy in Proton Emission Decay . . . . . . . . . . 343
8.15.2 Example of Proton Emission Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
8.15.3 Example of Two-Proton Emission Decay . . . . . . . . . . 345
8.16 Neutron Emission Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
8.16 .1 Decay Energy in Neutron Emission Decay . . . . . . . . . 346
8.16.2 Example of Neutron Emission Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
8.17 Chart of the Nuclides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
8.18 General Aspects of Radioactive Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
 Contents XXI

Appendices

Appendix 1: Short Biographies of Scientists

Whose Work Is Discussed in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Appendix 2. Roman Letter Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Appendix 3. Greek Letter Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Appendix 4. Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Appendix 5. Electronic Databases of Interest

in Nuclear and Medical Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Appendix 6. International Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423