GEANT4 application for the simulation of the head of a siemens primus linac

Abstract

The Monte Carlo simulation of the head of a Siemens Primus Linac used at Virgen Macarena Hospital (Sevilla, Spain) has been performed using the code GEANT4 [1-2], version 9.2. In this work, the main features of the application built by our group are presented. They are mainly focused in the optimization of the performance of the simulation. The geometry, including the water phantom, has been entirely wrapped by a shielding volume which discards all the particles escaping far away through its walls. With this, a factor of four in the time spent by the simulation can be saved. An interface to read and write phase-space files in IAEA format has been also developed to save CPU time in our simulations [3-4]. Finally, some calculations of the dose absorption in the water phantom have been done and compared with the results given by EGSnrc [5] and with experimental data obtained for the calibration of the machine.