Nanodosimetry of radon alpha particles

It is currently accepted that energy deposition at the nanometer level (rather than conventional microdosimetry) determines the biological effects of ionizing radiation. Many previously established experimental techniques (e.g., the Rossi proportional counter) or theoretical methods (e.g., simplified calculations using the continuous slowing-down approximation (CSDA)) are inapplicable to the study of nanodosimetry. The peculiarities of the geometry of exposure to radon progeny further complicate the problem. This is because the conditions under which several {open_quotes}classical{close_quotes} models of radiation action are obtained (e.g., the alpha-beta formulation of the Theory of Dual Radiation Action, which is built on microdosimetry) are no longer valid. It thus becomes clear that not only new techniques but new concepts are required to describe the effects of radon alpha particles. In this paper we discuss a number of computational aspects specific to radon nanodosimetry. In particular, we describe the novel concept of {open_quotes}associated surface{close_quotes} (AS) which is necessary for efficiently converting Monte-Carlo-generated particle tracks to nanodosimetric spectra. The AS is the analog of Lea`s associated volume, applied to radiation sources subject to the geometrical restrictions of internal exposure. We systematically analyze factors affecting the nanodosimetry of radon progeny, such as the distance between the radioactive source and themore » sensitive volume, the size of the sensitive volume, and CSDA versus full Monte-Carlo track generation.« less