Monte Carlo studies on neutron interactions in radiobiological experiments

Monte Carlo method was used to study the characteristics of neutron interactions with cells underneath a water medium layer with varying thickness. The following results were obtained. (1) The fractions of neutron interaction with ¹H, ¹²C, ¹⁴N and ¹⁶O nuclei in the cell layer were studied. The fraction with ¹H increased with increasing medium thickness, while decreased for ¹²C, ¹⁴N and ¹⁶O nuclei. The bulges in the interaction fractions with ¹²C, ¹⁴N and ¹⁶O nuclei were explained by the resonance spikes in the interaction cross-section data. The interaction fraction decreased in the order: ¹H > ¹⁶O > ¹²C > ¹⁴N. (2) In general, as the medium thickness increased, the number of “interacting neutrons” which exited the medium and then further interacted with the cell layer increased. (3) The area under the angular distributions for “interacting neutrons” decreased with increasing incident neutron energy. Such results would be useful for deciphering the reasons behind discrepancies among existing results in the literature.