The FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) experiment is an international project with significant involvement from the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). It is dedicated to the study of nuclear fragmentation in two crucial areas: hadron therapy and radiation protection in space.
Hadron therapy is an advanced radiotherapy technique that uses beams of heavy charged particles (hadrons) to target cancer cells with extreme precision. Unlike traditional X-rays used in standard radiotherapy, hadrons release their energy in a localised manner, minimising damage to the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor. Moreover, they are more biologically destructive to cancer cells.
However, nuclear fragmentation phenomena can occur when hadron beams interact with the human body, in which the atoms making up the patient’s body, or the beam particles themselves, break apart into secondary particles. This alters the dose distribution in the patient and must be studied in detail to optimise treatment.
FOOT aims to precisely measure the cross-sections of these nuclear reactions, improving both the algorithms used for treatment planning in clinical settings and enabling benchmarking of Monte Carlo simulation software.
Beyond the medical applications, FOOT’s results are also important for the radiation protection of astronauts in space. Long-duration missions, such as those to Mars, expose astronauts to high levels of cosmic radiation, mainly composed of high-energy protons and heavy nuclei. When these particles hit spacecraft shielding materials, they can also cause nuclear fragmentation, producing potentially harmful secondary particles. FOOT provides essential data for designing more effective shields, helping to ensure crew safety during space missions.
The experiment uses a combination of advanced detectors, including silicon trackers, calorimeters, time-of-flight systems, and nuclear emulsions to measure double-differential cross-sections of ion fragmentation in the energy range of interest (100 to 500 MeV/nucleon) for both therapy and space applications, and across a wide angular range. Measurements are conducted at GSI (Germany) and CNAO (Italy).
FOOT employs innovative techniques to reconstruct the trajectories and energies of secondary particles, enabling a detailed analysis of nuclear interactions. Thanks to the data collected, FOOT will contribute to improving clinical protocols in hadron therapy and to developing new protection strategies for future space missions—representing an excellent example of how nuclear physics can be applied to both medicine and space exploration.
Bachelor, Master and PhD Thesis are available.
For more details: Prof. MCMorone email: cristina.morone@roma2.infn.it
References:
National web-page
FOOT: a new experiment to measure nuclear fragmentation at intermediate energies