Medicine and Surgery "E" - Pontine Campus

RICCARDO FACCINI
RICCARDO FACCINI
MASSIMO PETRARCA
MASSIMO PETRARCA

Based on the attachments to Ministerial Decree no. 418 of May 30, 2025, the syllabus for this course is uniform nationwide and has the following general objectives:

The Physics course aims to provide essential knowledge of physics for understanding natural phenomena and biological processes, with particular attention to applications in the biomedical field.

At the end of the course the student will be able to understand radiation physics applications and to navigate the databases that allow quantitative predictions in this field.

Solid bases of classical physics are expected, in particular electro-magnetism which is essential. It is important to have a good knowledge of special relativity and a basic knowledge of non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Elements of Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics and of the structure of matter will be provided and can be acquired in parallel with the course.

- Introduction

Areas of application of radiation physics: medicine (diagnostics and therapy), cultural heritage, radio dating, …). Natural units.

- radiation-matter interaction

Interaction of charged particles with matter: ionization, LET, Range, Bragg peak and its applications (particularly hadrontherapy), multiple scattering and straggling, irradiation and its applications (synchrotron and Brehemsstrahlung, x-ray tube, conventional radiotherapy , XRF), positron interactions and applications, in particular PET.

Photon-matter interaction: attenuation coefficients and cross sections, photoelectric, Compton effects and pair production and applications (photoelectric peak and Compton threshold, dose profile of conventional radiotherapy, cobalt therapy,…)

- Nuclear decays

Structure of the nucleus: binding energy, nuclear masses and radii, Segre plane

Radiactivity: law of the radioactive decay, branching ratio, activity, quantities relevant to nuclear medicine, secular equilibrium and radionuclide generators

Decays: Q-value, alpha decay and its applications (radon, metabolic radiotherapy, ...), spontaneous fission, beta decays, electron capture and applications (brachytherapy, spatial resolution of PET, radio-guided surgery, dosimetry in hadrontherapy, ...), isomeric de-excitations , internal conversions and applications (SPECT, cobalt therapy, theragnostics,…)

- Nuclear reactions

Types of reaction, Q-value, cross section and applications (production of radio-isotopes, fragmentation in hadrontherapy,…)

- Databases

Laboratory practice of the use of the databases with radiation-matter interaction data, decays and nuclear reactions

- Physics of accelerators

Classification of accelerators history of accelerators, hints on the history of accelerators. Operation of cyclotrons, linear accelerators, synchrotrons. Phase stability principle, weak and strong focus. Principles of laser-plasma acceleration. Introduction to synchrotron light production.

- Neutron physics

Neutron production: nomenclature, radioactive sources, accelerator sources (DT, photoproduction, spallation), nuclear reactors.
Introduction to neutron detectors (gas, solid state and scintillation detectors, Bonner spheres)
Applications: neutron spectroscopy, chip irradiation, medical radioisotope production, neutron tomography, power generation



- radio dating

Dating methods of archaeological and geological interest: isotopic composition, 14C dating and mass spectrometers, methods based on decay products, thermoluminescence

- Dosimetry

Principles of radiobiology, dosimetry quantities: exposure, dose, dose equivalent, effective dose, KERMA, RBE, OER and their relationships

Environmental radioactivity: sources of environmental radioactivity, quantification of the corresponding dose

There no single textbook, but a set of chapters are suggested in the "bibliography on basics" section of
https://elearning2.uniroma1.it/course/view.php?id=2091
Furthermore, the slides of the course are available.

As an integration, the section "bibliography on applications" of
https://elearning2.uniroma1.it/course/view.php?id=2091
reports the additional material needed to prepare for the exam.

The course is taught at the blackboard with the aid of slides to project the relevant graphs and images. There are also training sessions at the PC where the students learn how to use the existing databases with the relevant quantities and to combine them. The output of these sessions is shared on e-learning and commented. Finally, online polling Apps are utilized to keep the attention and to have an immediate feedback on the comprehention of the class.

Attendance is not compulsory. The presence at the testing sessions is recorded since it affects the modality of the exam.

The student prepares a topic in applied physics and discusses the physics aspects that have been treated during the course. An open question on the rest of the programme follows. A student that has not been present for the majority of the training sessions during the course will instead be tested exclusively with free questions.