Studies on effective atomic numbers and electron densities of nucleobases in DNA

Various parameters of dosimetric importance such as effective atomic numbers (Zeff) and electron densities (Nel) of nucleobases in DNA have been calculated for the total and partial photon interaction processes in the wide energy range of 1 keV-100 GeV. The variations of Zeff and Nel with energy are shown graphically for all partial and total interaction processes and are found to be similar. Up to 10 keV, Zeff and Nel show a sharp increase for cytosine-guanine and thymine-adenine whereas for all the other nucleobases, it is almost constant. Then there is sharp decrease in Zeff and Nel with energy up to 100 keV for all the nucleobases. From 100 keV to 6 MeV, Zeff and Nel are almost independent of energy. From 6 MeV to 100 MeV, there is regular increase in Zeff and Nel with photon energy. Above 400 MeV, Zeff and Nel remain almost constant. The obtained results are due to the dominance of photoelectric absorption, Compton scattering and pair production in different energy regions as respectively stated above and their dependences on the chemical compositions of the interacting media.