MED In the literature: open

Radiation chemistry beyond the homogeneous stage

In plain words

Water split by radiation produces reactive fragments whose numbers change over nanoseconds to seconds. Current models stop too early to describe what reaches biological targets.

Precise statement

Extend inhomogeneous radiation chemistry past $1\,\mathrm{microsecond}$ into the homogeneous regime in realistic cellular media, including oxygen, scavengers at millimolar concentration, lipid and protein targets, and track overlap at high dose rate. Required outputs: yields $G$ of hydroxyl radical, hydrated electron, hydroperoxyl, hydrogen peroxide and organic peroxyl species versus time, LET and dose rate. An answer is a validated kinetic scheme over $10^{-12}\ \text{to}\ 10\,\mathrm{s}$.

What would settle it

Time-resolved scavenger and probe measurements across LET and dose rate reproduced by one kinetic model without per-case refitting.

Status in the literature

Interest grew after 2019 because the FLASH effect depends on exactly this regime.