GEANT4 is a Monte Carlo code developed in an object-oriented environment. It provides three models of electromagnetic physics, namely Standard, Low-energy, and Penelope. In this work, we examined the accuracy of the photon and electron interactions, and developed a user code for external beam radiotherapy simulations. The code has the capabilities to collect phase space data, perform variance reduction schemes, and calculate dose distributions in a phantom. For all three models, the dose distributions of monoenergetic and clinical photon beams in water are in good agreement with the EGSnrc simulations. For electron beams, the results depend on the maximum electron step size. Significant step size artifacts are also found in the transport of electrons through a thin aluminum slab. Our studies of interface perturbation effects and Fano cavity response illustrated potential problems with the condensed history algorithm. Overall, GEANT4 can be used in applications where electron transport is not critical.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.81426 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Poon, Emily S. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Medical Radiation Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002166645, proquestno: AAIMR06441, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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