Particle therapy: nuclear fragmentation study at the FOOT experiment

This thesis work describes the main topics of the Charged Particle Therapy (CPT) concerning treatment of deep-seated tumors, exploiting the ions characteristic distribution of energy deposition in matter and their high biological effectiveness. In this framework, FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) is an experiment of applied nuclear physics, aiming to measure nuclear fragmentation cross sections relevant in particle therapy and also space radioprotection, for which the experimental panorama is very poor. In fact, these measurements are fundamental to improve the nuclear interactions description and the nuclear models used to calculate the dose in treatment planning, described in Chapter 1. To this purpose, two experimental setup have been developed, and this thesis focuses on the electronics apparatus, explained in Chapter 2, which aims to measure Z>=3 fragments, which are emitted at small angles with respect to the primary beam direction. By measuring momentum, time of flight, kinetic energy and energy loss in thin detectors, the FOOT apparatus will determine fragments charge and mass and thus, it will allow to uniquely identify them. In this thesis, the reconstruction and the analysis of the simulated FLUKA data are described. The expected resolutions of the different FOOT detectors have been applied to Monte Carlo samples in order to recreate experimental-like data. Chapter 3 focuses on the identification of fragments and on minimization fitting methods, which provide the best determination of the mass number, allowing to discriminate events spoiled for istance by a kinetic energy underestimation, which is mainly due to the emission of neutrons.