Energy Transfer Mechanisms in DNA: Relationship to Energy Deposition in Sub-Microscopic Volumes

摘要

Energy transfer on the nanometer scale plays an important role in the calculationand interpretation of energy deposition in sub-microscopic volumes. Transport of energy by secondary electrons is a well-known example of this phenomenon. Intramolecular energy and charge transfer after collisional excitation and ionization of molecules have received considerably less attention in the radiological physics community. Nevertheless, recent findings at several laboratories have raised questions about the common assumption that radiation-induced DNA damage remains localized on the nanometer scale during the formation of biologically significant lesions.