Water versus DNA a new deal for proton transport modeling in biological matter

CHRISTOPHE CHAMPION; MICHELE ARCANGELO QUINTO; JUAN M. MONTI; M. E. GALASSI; PHILIPPE F. WECK; O. A. FÓJON; J. HANSSEN; R. D. RIVAROLA

Conferencia; XXIX International Conference on Photonic, Electronic and Atomic Collisions (ICPEAC 2015); 2015

Water vapor is a common surrogate of DNA for modeling the proton-induced ionizing processes in living tissue exposed to radiations. The present study aims at scrutinizing the validity of this approximation and then revealing new insights into proton-induced energy transfers by a comparative analysis between water and realistic biological medium. In this context, self-consistent quantum mechanical modeling of the ionization and electron capture processes is reported within the continuum distorted wave-eikonal initial state framework for both isolated water molecules and DNA components impacted by proton beams.