Water is a major component of living organisms, which can be 70-85% of the weight of cells. For this reason, water is a main target of ionizing radiations and plays a central role in radiobiology. Heavy ions, electrons and photons interact with water molecules; mainly by ionization and excitation. Neutrons interact with water molecules by elastic interactions, which generate recoil ions that will create ionizations and excitations in water molecules. These fast events (~10[superscript -12] s) lead to the formation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). The ROS, in particular the hydroxyl radical (¨OH), interact with neighbour molecules such as proteins, lipids and nucleic acids by chemical interaction. Microbeams can irradiate selectively either the external membrane, the cytoplasm and the cell nucleus. These studies have shown that cell survival is greatly reduced when the nucleus is irradiated, but that this is not the case when cytoplasm or cell membrane is irradiated. Thus, DNA is a very sensitive site to ionizing radiation and ROS. For this reason, DNA has long been considered the most important molecule to explain radiobiological effects such as cell death. However, this concept has been challenged recently by new experimental results that have shown that cells which have not been directly in contact with radiation are also affected. This is called the bystander effect. Further studies have shown that a group of cells and their environment reacts collectively to radiation. A hypothesis put forward to explain this radiobiological phenomenon is that a irradiated cell will secrete signalling molecules that will affect non-irradiated cells. The implicated phenomenon and molecules are poorly understood at this moment. The purpose of this work is to improve our comprehension of the phenomenon in the microsecond that follows the irradiation. To these ends, a new Monte-Carlo simulation program of water radiolysis by photons has been generated. For photons of energy <2 MeV, they interact with water mainly by Compton and photoelectric effects, which create energetic electrons in water. The created electrons are then followed by our existing programs to simulate the radiolysis of water by photons. Similarly, a new code has been built to simulate the neutrons interaction with water. This code simulates the elastic collisions of a neutron with water molecules and calculates the number and energy of recoil protons and oxygen ions. The main part of this Ph.D. work was the generation of a non-homogeneous Monte-Carlo Step-By-Step (SBS) simulation code of non-homogeneous radiation chemistry. This new program has been used successfully to simulate radiolysis of water by ions of various LET, pH, ion types ([superscript 1]H[superscript +], [superscript 4]He[superscript 2+], [superscript 12]C[superscript 6+]) and temperature. The program has also been used to simulate the dose-rate effect and the Fricke and Ceric dosimeters. More complex systems (glycine, polymer gels and HCN) have also been simulated.

Les accélérateurs d’ions lourds sont un outil incontournable pour la recherche en physique nucléaire. Ils sont également utilisés pour diverses applications. Il est nécessaire de caractériser la production des neutrons secondaires dans les accélérateurs afin de garantir un fonctionnement sûr en toutes circonstances. Cependant, les données expérimentales sont très rares voire inexistantes. Pour certaines données, on note des divergences entre différentes publications. Des désaccords sont aussi observés entre les mesures et les calculs. Toutes ces raisons justifient le programme Thick Target Neutron Yields (TTNY) dont l’objectif est de mesurer des spectres doublement différentiels (énergie, angle) des neutrons générés par l’interaction des ions lourds (12≤Afaisceau≤208 et 4,6 MeV/nucléon≤Efaisceau≤95 MeV/nucléon) sur cibles épaisses (natC, natCu et natNb). Deux techniques de mesure ont été utilisées : Activation et Temps de vol. Cela permet d’avoir une meilleure confiance dans les mesures, d’étudier les limites expérimentales et de consolider les conclusions que l’on peut en tirer. Les mesures sont comparées à des simulations effectuées dans ce travail avec les codes Monte-Carlo les plus utilisés en calcul nucléaires : PHITS (japonais), FLUKA (européen (CERN/INFN)) et MCNP (américain). Ces comparaisons ont permis d’évaluer la qualité des codes dans les énergies étudiées et pour les masses des noyaux explorées. Elles ont permis aussi de conclure sur les incertitudes systématiques et les éventuelles évolutions à apporter aux modèles physiques de ces codes. / Heavy-ion accelerators are an essential tool for nuclear physics research. They are also adopted in several applications. It is necessary to characterize the secondary neutrons production in order to guarantee a safe operation in every circumstance in accelerators. However, experimental data are very rare or even non-existent. For some data, we notice disagreements between different publications. Disagreements are also observed between measurements data and simulations. For all these reasons, we established the program Thick Target Neutron Yields (TTNY). This program aims to measure the double differential neutron spectra (energy, angle) generated by the interactions of heavy-ions (12≤Abeam≤208 and 4.6 MeV/nucleon≤Ebeam≤95 MeV/nucleon) on thick targets (natC, natCu and natNb). Two measurements methods were adopted: Activation and Time of Flight. This choice allows having a better confidence on the measurements, studying experimental limits and consolidating the conclusions that could be drawn from the experimental results. The measurements are compared to the simulations performed with some Monte-Carlo widely used in nuclear simulation: PHITS (Japanese), FLUKA (European (CERN/INFN)) and MCNP (American). These comparisons allowed evaluating the modeling quality of heavy-ion reactions for the energies and masses explored in this work. We also conclude on the systematic uncertainties and on the potential improvements to be introduced to physics models of these codes.