Monte Carlo simulations of prompt-gamma emission during carbon ion irradiation

accepted for publication in IEEE TNS; Monte Carlo simulations based on the Geant4 toolkit (version 9.1) were performed to study the emission of secondary prompt-gamma rays produced by nuclear reactions during carbon ion-beam therapy. These simulations were performed along with an experimental program and instrumentation developments which aim at designing a prompt-gamma ray device for real-time control of hadrontherapy. The objective of the present study is twofold: firstly, to present the features of the prompt-gamma radiation in the case of carbon ion irradiation; secondly, to simulate the experimental setup and to compare measured and simulated counting rates corresponding to four different experiments. For each experiment, we found that simulations overestimate prompt-gamma ray detection yields by a factor of 12. Uncertainties in fragmentation cross sections and binary cascade model cannot explain such discrepancies. The so-called “photon evaporation” model is therefore questionable and its modification is currently in progress.