Abstract Imaging techniques using protons are currently being actively developed for proton therapy. Presently, many researchers use the GEANT4 toolkit to simulate proton imaging devices, without, however, detailed analysis of its precision for the case of thick absorbers. In this paper we present a systematic comparison of the quantities important for proton imaging as simulated by different physics lists of GEANT4 (version 9.6.p03) in the conditions close to those of proton medical imaging. We evaluated the physics lists FTF_BIC_EMY, FTFP_BERT_EMY, QGSP_BERT_95_EMY, QGSP_BERT_EMY, QGSP_BIC_EMV, and QGSP_BIC_EMY. The kinetic energies, angles, and coordinates of protons exiting the absorber were analysed. The significant differences in the physical observables were detected between EMY and EMV models of electromagnetic processes. The difference between BERT and BIC models of nuclear processes is at least 10 times smaller. The obtained results may be used not only in proton imaging but also as a test for nuclear models in future experiments with thick absorbers.

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质子医学成像中的 GEANT4 模拟：传输模型比较

摘要 目前正在积极开发使用质子的成像技术用于质子治疗。目前，许多研究人员使用 GEANT4 工具包来模拟质子成像设备，但没有详细分析其在厚吸收体情况下的精度。在本文中，我们在与质子医学成像条件接近的条件下，对由 GEANT4（版本 9.6.p03）的不同物理列表模拟的质子成像重要量进行了系统比较。我们评估了物理列表 FTF_BIC_EMY、FTFP_BERT_EMY、QGSP_BERT_95_EMY、QGSP_BERT_EMY、QGSP_BIC_EMV 和 QGSP_BIC_EMY。分析了离开吸收器的质子的动能、角度和坐标。在电磁过程的 EMY 和 EMV 模型之间检测到物理可观测值的显着差异。BERT 和 BIC 核过程模型之间的差异至少要小 10 倍。获得的结果不仅可以用于质子成像，还可以作为未来厚吸收体实验中核模型的测试。