The foot (Fragmentation Of Target) experiment

Particle therapy uses proton and ion beams to treat deep-seated solid tumors, exploiting the favorable energy deposition profile of charged particles. Nuclear interactions with patient tissues can induce fragments production that must be taken into account in treatment planning: in proton treatments target fragmentation produces low-energy, short-range fragments depositing a non-negligible dose in the entry channel, while in heavier-ion beam treatments long-range fragments due to projectile fragmentation release dose in tissues surrounding the tumor. The FOOT experiment aims to study these processes to improve the nuclear interactions description in next generation Treatment Planning Systems softwares and hence the treatments quality. Target (16O and 12C) fragmentation induced by 150–250 MeV proton beams will be studied via inverse kinematics: 16O and 12C beams (150–250 MeV/u) collide on graphite and hydrocarbon targets to provide nuclear fragmentation cross sections on hydrogen. The projectile fragmentation of these beams will be explored as well. The FOOT detector includes a magnetic spectrometer to measure fragments momentum, a plastic scintillator for ΔE and TOF measurements and a scintillating crystal calorimeter to measure fragments kinetic energy. These measurements will be combined to accurately identify fragments charge and mass.