Calculation of Mass Stopping Power of Alpha Particles in Human DNA Molecules Using Bragg-Kleeman Rule against SRIM Simulation

Abstract

The mass stopping power in different elements, molecules, and human tissues has been a subject of theoretical and applied sciences. They are very interested in mass stopping power because it characterizes how much energy a particle will lose as it passes through matter. In this paper, the mass stopping power for an alpha particle passing through DNA was calculated from 1 to 100 MeV using Bragg’s rule; these results matched closely with the SRIM-2015 simulation. The mass stopping powers of the elements making up the DNA were then calculated using the Bethe-Bohr formula, and the hydrogen element has the highest stopping power among all its elements. Absorbed dose and equivalent dose were also calculated for DNA, and there was a clear linear relationship between them and the mass stopping power. This work improves our understanding of how radiation deposits energy in genetic materials and helps support the use of these concepts in medical physics and assessing radiation risk.