We report on the application of the relativistic convergent close-coupling method to electron scattering from silver atoms. Differential and integrated cross sections are presented for elastic scattering and excitation to a number of low-lying excited states for energies ranging from 0.1 to 200 eV. The total and ionisation cross sections and elastic spin asymmetry parameters are also presented, and we find potentially large relativistic effects for elastic scattering at low energies. The results are compared with experiments where available, and somewhat variable agreement is found.

We present two methods for computing the Rayleigh and Raman scattering cross sections for photon scattering on atomic hydrogen, or hydrogen like systems. Both methods are applicable for incident photon energies above the ionization threshold. The first method implements the well known Gaussian quadrature approach to deal with principle value integration, and relies on evaluation of the exact eigenfunctions of hydrogen. The second, more computationally efficient approach, uses a finite L 2 basis expansion of the target, and applies complex exterior scaling methods to accurately account for the contribution of the intermediate continuum states. This method is much more general in that it does not rely on analytic solutions to the Hamiltonian, nor evaluation of any special functions, and is expected to be applicable to more complex systems where exact wavefunctions are cumbersome to evaluate. Both methods are in complete agreement with previous work based on analytical representations of the Green's function or the dipole matrix elements. Rayleigh, Raman, and photoionization cross sections for scattering on the first few excited states of atomic hydrogen are presented and compared with previous results where available.

Two computational methods developed recently [McNamara, Fursa, and Bray, Phys. Rev. A 98, 043435 (2018)] for calculating Rayleigh and Raman scattering cross sections for atomic hydrogen have been extended to quasi one-electron systems. A comprehensive set of cross sections have been obtained for the alkali atoms: lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and cesium. These cross sections are accurate for incident photon energies above and below the ionization threshold, but they are limited to energies below the excitation threshold of core electrons. The effect of spin-orbit interaction, importance of accounting for core polarization, and convergence of the cross sections have been investigated.

Objective: This paper reports on the implementation and shows examples of the use of the ProTheRaMon framework for simulating the delivery of proton therapy treatment plans and range monitoring using positron emission tomography (PET). ProTheRaMon offers complete processing of proton therapy treatment plans, patient CT geometries, and intra-treatment PET imaging, taking into account therapy and imaging coordinate systems and activity decay during the PET imaging protocol specific to a given proton therapy facility. We present the ProTheRaMon framework and illustrate its potential use case and data processing steps for a patient treated at the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice (CCB) proton therapy center in Krakow, Poland. Approach: The ProTheRaMon framework is based on GATE Monte Carlo software, the CASToR reconstruction package and in-house developed Python and bash scripts. The framework consists of five separated simulation and data processing steps, that can be further optimized according to the user’s needs and specific settings of a given proton therapy facility and PET scanner design. Main results: ProTheRaMon is presented using example data from a patient treated at CCB and the J-PET scanner to demonstrate the application of the framework for proton therapy range monitoring. The output of each simulation and data processing stage is described and visualized. Significance: We demonstrate that the ProTheRaMon simulation platform is a high-performance tool, capable of running on a computational cluster and suitable for multi-parameter studies, with databases consisting of large number of patients, as well as different PET scanner geometries and settings for range monitoring in a clinical environment. Due to its modular structure, the ProTheRaMon framework can be adjusted for different proton therapy centers and/or different PET detector geometries. It is available to the community via github.