Re: Range of protons in water

["Tord P. Walderhaug" <tordw@mail.hrp.no>]

Thank you all who responded to my question regarding range of protons
in water/heavy water. We got all the information we needed. Here is a
resume of the answers:

The following references were given:

ICRU Report 49,  "Stopping Powers and Ranges for Protons and Alpha
Particles"

Jim Turner, "Atoms, Radiation, and Radiation Protection", 2nd ed.,
John Wiley & Sons, 1995. (In the 1995 edition it is Table 5.3, while
the same information can be found in the 1992 edition in Table 4.3)

ICRP 21 (appendix 10)

Handbook of Health Physics and Radiological Health, 3rd ed., Fig. 5.8,
1998, ISBN 0-683-18334-6. (The figure is credited to ICRU Report 46. 
Fig 5.8.2 (Berger, 1992) )


J. Janni, "Proton Range-Energy Tables, 1keV - 10 GeV", Atomic and
Nuclear Data Tables 27, March-May 1982, Academic Press, New York,
pp338-339 (WATER)

A free, downlodable range/stopping power program at:
http://www.research.ibm.com/ionbeams/#Introduction

All references above gives the ranges in light water. It was some
uncertainty on how to convert to heavy water. When the ranges are
given by g/cm2, do we use light water density or the heavy water
density (appr. 20/18 = 1.11) to get the range in cm? It was for
instance pointed out that since the electron density is the same for
light and heavy water, it seems that there should be very little
difference in the stopping power of the two media, which implicate use
of the light water density. 

The latter, though interesting, is not important for us, since the
differences either way, will be too small to have any implications for
ours conclusions.

Thank you very much,

Tord Walderhaug
tordw@hrp.no
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