Optimisation of the Tripathi Model Using the GSI-ESA-NASA Nuclear Reaction Cross-Section Database

Abstract Nuclear reaction cross-sections are an essential ingredient to reliable deterministic and stochastic radiation transport codes used for radiation protection in space and heavy-ion therapy applications. A recent study compared the existing literature data compiled within the open-access GSI-ESA-NASA cross-section database to the models implemented in the transport codes most commonly used for radiation protection in space and heavy-ion therapy applications. The outcome of the comparison was that none of the models fit well the experimental data for all projectile-target systems at all energy ranges. Therefore, the literature data were exploited to optimise the Tripathi model as reported in this work. This model is used as default in FLUKA, TRiP, and SpaceTRiP, it is part of the Hybrid-Kurotama model used in PHITS, and it is implemented in Geant4. The consequences of using the proposed Tripathi optimisation in the Hybrid-Kurotama model are also analysed.