Ionization cluster size distribution for alpha particles: Experiment, modelling

The paper presents data for measured ionization cluster size distributions by alpha particles in tissue equivalent media and comparison with the simulated data for liquid water. The experiments were carried out with a beam of 4.6 MeV alpha particles performed in a setup called the JET Counter. The theoretically derived cluster size distributions for alphas particles were obtained using the K-means algorithm. The simulation was carried out by Monte Carlo track structure calculations using cross sections for liquid water. The first moments of cluster size distributions, derived from K-means algorithm as a function of diameter of cluster centroid, were compared with the corresponding moments derived from the experiments for nitrogen and propane targets. It was found that the ratio of the first moments for water to gas targets correlates well with the corresponding ratio of the mean free paths for primary ionization by alpha particles in the two media. It is shown that the cluster size distributions for alpha particles in water, obtained from K-means algorithm, are in agreement with the corresponding distributions measured experimentally in nitrogen or propane gas targets of nano-meter sizes. (authors)