The University of Osaka · Medicine
Professor Tatsuhiko Sato's research lab specializes in computational radiation physics, focusing on the development and application of the PHITS (Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System) code for simulating high-energy particle and heavy ion transport. The lab conducts advanced Monte Carlo simulations to model radiation interactions in various environments, including the Earth's atmosphere, space, and human tissues, with applications in aviation dosimetry, space radiation protection, and hadron therapy. A key focus is the creation of analytical radiation models—such as PARMA—derived from extensive PHITS simulations to enable rapid and accurate estimation of cosmic-ray spectra. The lab also enhances simulation accuracy through continuous code upgrades, improved nuclear reaction models, and integration of advanced computational techniques like track-structure and condense history methods.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
We have upgraded many features of the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) and released the new version as PHITS3.02. The accuracy and the applicable energy ranges of the code were greatly improved and extended, respectively, owing to the revisions to the nuclear reaction models and the incorporation of new atomic interaction models. Both condense history and track-structure methods were implemented to handle the electron and positron transport, although the latter is reliable on
An upgraded version of the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System, PHITS2.52, was developed and released to the public. The new version has been greatly improved from the previously released version, PHITS2.24, in terms of not only the code itself but also the contents of its package, such as the attached data libraries. In the new version, a higher accuracy of simulation was achieved by implementing several latest nuclear reaction models. The reliability of the simulation was improved by
The Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) is a general-purpose Monte Carlo radiation transport code that can simulate the behavior of most particle species with energies up to 1 TeV (per nucleon for ions). Its new version, PHITS3.33, was recently developed and released to the public. In the new version, the compatibility with nuclear data libraries and the algorithm of the track-structure modes have been improved, and they are recommended to be used for certain simulation conditio
Estimation of cosmic-ray spectra in the atmosphere has been essential for the evaluation of aviation doses. We therefore calculated these spectra by performing Monte Carlo simulation of cosmic-ray propagation in the atmosphere using the PHITS code. The accuracy of the simulation was well verified by experimental data taken under various conditions, even near sea level. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the simulation results, we proposed an analytical model for estimating the cosmic-ray spect
By extending our previously established model, here we present a new model called "PHITS-based Analytical Radiation Model in the Atmosphere (PARMA) version 3.0," which can instantaneously estimate terrestrial cosmic ray fluxes of neutrons, protons, ions with charge up to 28 (Ni), muons, electrons, positrons, and photons nearly anytime and anywhere in the Earth's atmosphere. The model comprises numerous analytical functions with parameters whose numerical values were fitted to reproduce the resul
Estimation of cosmic-ray neutron spectra in the atmosphere has been an essential issue in the evaluation of the aircrew doses and the soft-error rates of semiconductor devices. We therefore performed Monte Carlo simulations for estimating neutron spectra using the PHITS code in adopting the nuclear data library JENDL-High-Energy file. Excellent agreements were observed between the calculated and measured spectra for a wide altitude range even at the ground level. Based on a comprehensive analysi
A new model called "PHITS-based Analytical Radiation Model in the Atmosphere (PARMA) version 4.0" was developed to facilitate instantaneous estimation of not only omnidirectional but also angular differential energy spectra of cosmic ray fluxes anywhere in Earth's atmosphere at nearly any given time. It consists of its previous version, PARMA3.0, for calculating the omnidirectional fluxes and several mathematical functions proposed in this study for expressing their zenith-angle dependences. The
Microdosimetric quantities such as lineal energy, y, are better indexes for expressing the RBE of HZE particles in comparison to LET. However, the use of microdosimetric quantities in computational dosimetry is severely limited because of the difficulty in calculating their probability densities in macroscopic matter. We therefore improved the particle transport simulation code PHITS, providing it with the capability of estimating the microdosimetric probability densities in a macroscopic framew
Estimation of the survival fractions of cells irradiated with various particles over a wide linear energy transfer (LET) range is of great importance in the treatment planning of charged-particle therapy. Two computational models were developed for estimating survival fractions based on the concept of the microdosimetric kinetic model. They were designated as the double-stochastic microdosimetric kinetic and stochastic microdosimetric kinetic models. The former model takes into account the stoch
Estimation of the specific energy distribution in a human body exposed to complex radiation fields is of great importance in the planning of long-term space missions and heavy ion cancer therapies. With the aim of developing a tool for this estimation, the specific energy distributions in liquid water around the tracks of several HZE particles with energies up to 100 GeV n(-1) were calculated by performing track structure simulation with the Monte Carlo technique. In the simulation, the targets
We here propose a new model for estimating the biological effectiveness for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) considering intra- and intercellular heterogeneity in <sup>10</sup>B distribution. The new model was developed from our previously established stochastic microdosimetric kinetic model that determines the surviving fraction of cells irradiated with any radiations. In the model, the probability density of the absorbed doses in microscopic scales is the fundamental physical index for cha
The fluence to organ-dose and effective-dose conversion coefficients for neutrons and protons with energies up to 100 GeV was calculated using the PHITS code coupled to male and female adult reference computational phantoms, which are to be released as a common ICRP/ICRU publication. For the calculation, the radiation and tissue weighting factors, w(R) and w(T), respectively, as revised in ICRP Publication 103 were employed. The conversion coefficients for effective dose equivalents derived usin
It is considered that the linear energy transfer (LET) may not be the ideal index for expressing the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of cell killing for heavy-ion irradiation, as the ion-species dependencies have clearly been observed in the relation between LET and RBE derived from cell-survival fraction data. The previously measured survival fractions of four cell lines irradiated by various ion species, employing the saturation-corrected dose-mean lineal energy, y*, instead of LET as
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