[Gate-users] with and without nanoparticules -> surprising output

David Leibold D.Leibold at tudelft.nl
Mon Feb 7 16:51:11 CET 2022


Dear Sarah,

while I do not have the knowledge to tell you whether your result makes sense or not, I had the same thought as Dimitris. A colleague once told me to choose a range cut that is about a fourth or fifth of the smallest dimension involved in your simulation. I am not sure whether this also holds true at the very small length scales that you are using in your simulation; others might shed more light on this topic.

You probably know that decreasing the range cut increases the simulation time, too. You might want to decrease the the range cut in small steps (factors of 10) and check both the simulation time and whether the results still change noticeably below a certain range cut.

It might also make sense to set different range cuts for your various volumes, so the smaller your structure, the smaller the range cut. By doing so, you help keeping the computation time as low as possible.

Last but not least, I noticed that you set a range cut for positrons. If you use X-ray energies as specified in your Gate macro (170 keV) then you don’t have to care about positrons, since the energy is too small to create them in the first place.

Kind regards,
David Leibold




On 7 Feb2022, at 10:15, Sarah Blind <sarah.blind at univ-lorraine.fr<mailto:sarah.blind at univ-lorraine.fr>> wrote:

Dear Gate users,

I want to model a spheroid which contains 30 000 cells in each of which there are 10 clusters of 10 nanoparticles.
The composition of my nanoparticles is the following

    +el: name=Gadolinium  ;   f=0.15
    +el: name=Silicon     ;   f=0.10
    +el: name=Carbon      ;   f=0.25
    +el: name=Nitrogen    ;   f=0.08
    +el: name=Oxygen      ;   f=0.22
    +el: name=Hydrogen    ;   f=0.20

My spheroid, the cells and the clusters are all spheres full with water.
For the moment, what I'm trying to observe is very simple : with and without the nanoparticles (and thus only water) I should observe a difference, shouldn't I ?

I use Geant4-DNA; with 10 000 000 photons sent ; here is what my .hdr outpout file looks like

Nanoparticles
        Average in Gy

No
        0.002

Yes

0.001


There is almost no difference between with and without the nanoparticles, this surprises me.

I'm not a physicist, do you find this normal ?

Here is my Gate code :


======= world.mac =======


/gate/world/geometry/setXLength 0.5 cm
/gate/world/geometry/setYLength 0.5 cm
/gate/world/geometry/setZLength 0.5 cm
/gate/world/setMaterial Air


/gate/world/daughters/name                       spheroide
/gate/world/daughters/insert                       sphere
/gate/spheroide/geometry/setRmin             0.0 mm
/gate/spheroide/geometry/setRmax            400 um
/gate/spheroide/placement/setTranslation   0 0 0 mm
/gate/spheroide/setMaterial                         G4_WATER
/gate/spheroide/vis/setVisible                       1
/gate/spheroide/vis/setColor                         blue
/gate/spheroide/vis/forceSolid                      false


/gate/spheroide/daughters/name                       cell
/gate/spheroide/daughters/insert                       sphere
/gate/cell/geometry/setRmin                              0.0 mm
/gate/cell/geometry/setRmax                             10 um
/gate/cell/placement/setTranslation                   100 0 0 um
/gate/cell/setMaterial                                         G4_WATER
/gate/cell/vis/setVisible                                      1
/gate/cell/vis/setColor                                         green
/gate/cell/vis/forceSolid                                      false

/gate/cell/daughters/name                           cluster
/gate/cell/daughters/insert                           sphere
/gate/cluster/geometry/setRmin                   0 mm
/gate/cluster/geometry/setRmax                  0.05 um
/gate/cluster/placement/setTranslation        0 0 0 mm
/gate/cluster/setMaterial                               G4_WATER
/gate/cluster/vis/setVisible                            1
/gate/cluster/vis/setColor                              yellow
/gate/cluster/vis/forceSolid                           false

/gate/cluster/daughters/name                          NP
/gate/cluster/daughters/insert                          sphere
/gate/NP/geometry/setRmin                            0 mm
/gate/NP/geometry/setRmax                           0.004 um
/gate/NP/placement/setTranslation                 0 0 0 mm
/gate/NP/setMaterial                                       AGuIX
/gate/NP/vis/setVisible                                    1
/gate/NP/vis/setColor                                      red
/gate/NP/vis/forceSolid                                    true

### repeaters ###

/gate/NP/repeaters/insert                               genericRepeater
/gate/NP/genericRepeater/setPlacementsFilename          ../data/NP.placements
/gate/NP/genericRepeater/useRelativeTranslation         1

/gate/cluster/repeaters/insert                               genericRepeater
/gate/cluster/genericRepeater/setPlacementsFilename          ../data/cluster.placements
/gate/cluster/genericRepeater/useRelativeTranslation         1


/gate/cell/repeaters/insert cubicArray
/gate/cell/cubicArray/setRepeatNumberX 32
/gate/cell/cubicArray/setRepeatNumberY 32
/gate/cell/cubicArray/setRepeatNumberZ 32
/gate/cell/cubicArray/setRepeatVector 20 20 20 um


======= physics.mac =======

# Geant4-DNA
/gate/physics/addPhysicsListMixed emstandard_opt3_mixed_emdna
/gate/physics/SetDNAInRegion spheroide
/gate/physics/ConstructProcessMixed

/gate/physics/Gamma/SetCutInRegion      world 0.5 mm
/gate/physics/Electron/SetCutInRegion   world 0.5 mm
/gate/physics/Positron/SetCutInRegion   world 0.5 mm

/gate/physics/displayCuts

# Choice of pseudo-random number generation algorithm
/gate/random/setEngineName MersenneTwister

# Auger electron activation
/gate/physics/addAtomDeexcitation


/gate/physics/addProcess                    PhotoElectric gamma
/gate/physics/processes/PhotoElectric/setModel        LivermoreModel
/gate/physics/processes/PhotoElectric/setAugerElectron     true
/gate/physics/processes/PhotoElectric/setDeltaRayCut     10 eV
/gate/physics/processes/PhotoElectric/setXRayCut         10 eV
/gate/physics/processes/PhotoElectric/setStepFunction     e- 0.2 0.1 nm

/gate/physics/addProcess                    Compton gamma
/gate/physics/processes/Compton/setModel             LivermoreModel
/gate/physics/processes/Compton/setStepFunction         e- 0.2 0.1 nm

/gate/physics/addProcess                    RayleighScattering
/gate/physics/processes/RayleighScattering/setModel         LivermoreModel

# transformation of a photon into an electron-positron pair

/gate/physics/addProcess                     GammaConversion
/gate/physics/processes/GammaConversion/setModel         LivermoreModel

/gate/physics/addProcess                     ElectronIonisation
/gate/physics/processes/ElectronIonisation/setModel         LivermoreModel e-
/gate/physics/processes/ElectronIonisation/setModel         PenelopeModel e+
/gate/physics/processes/ElectronIonisation/setStepFunction     e- 0.2 0.1 nm

/gate/physics/addProcess                     Bremsstrahlung e-
/gate/physics/addProcess                     Bremsstrahlung e+
/gate/physics/processes/Bremsstrahlung/setModel         LivermoreModel e-
/gate/physics/processes/Bremsstrahlung/setModel         PenelopeModel e+

/gate/physics/addProcess                     eMultipleScattering e-
/gate/physics/addProcess                     eMultipleScattering e+
/gate/physics/processes/eMultipleScattering/setModel     UrbanModel e-
/gate/physics/processes/eMultipleScattering/setModel     UrbanModel e+


======= detectors.mac =======


/gate/actor/addActor    DoseActor  dose
/gate/actor/dose/save    output/dose.hdr
/gate/actor/dose/attachTo    spheroide
/gate/actor/dose/stepHitType    random
/gate/actor/dose/setPosition    0.0 0.0 0.0 mm
/gate/actor/dose/setSize    800 800 800 um
/gate/actor/dose/setResolution    400 400 400
/gate/actor/dose/enableDose true
/gate/actor/dose/saveEveryNSeconds 30


======= source.mac =======


/gate/source/addSource mybeam gps
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/particle gamma
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/pos/type Beam
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/ene/mono 170 keV
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/ene/type Gauss
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/ene/sigma 1.0 keV
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/direction 0 0 -1

/gate/source/mybeam/gps/position 0 0 0.2 cm
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/pos/type Volume
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/pos/shape Cylinder
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/pos/inner_radius 0 mm
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/pos/radius 500 um
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/pos/halfz 0.01 cm
/gate/source/mybeam/gps/ang/type      beam2d


Thank you for your help,

Sarah Blind





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