Physics Issues Investigation - Gamma Knife

I need some help regarding this.

It's a topic related to "Gamma Knife" and it has to be about physics.

I need subtopics (at least 3 subtopics from Physics) that is related to "Gamma Knife"

Help would be appreciated.

All I can think of right now is radiation and such, I'm not sure if it's correct or not.

 

Potentially depending on the level of your class discuss the propagation of radiation, the production of gamma radiation and the mechanisms involved (as an engineer working at a nuclear power plant you can reach out to me if you need), the last could potentially incorporate the shielding that they utilize to protect the undesired places from getting large doses of radiation.

 

This is very insightful, what do you mean by 'propagation of radiation'?

Furthermore, isn't the production of gamma radiation produced by a 'radioactive source'? Especially cobalt-60?

And what do you mean the mechanisms involved?

Last but not least, what do you mean the 'shielding' that the gamma knifes utilize to protect the undesired places from getting large doses of radiation? Isn't this technically the 'cross-fire' point in which large doses of radiation are concentrated hence sparing the nearby healthy tissues from getting affected?

 

So in terms of cobalt-60 what is actually occurring that is releasing gamma radiation? It spans from a release of energy which you likely know but that release of energy is due to the instability of the atom due to either a large or small N/Z ratio (neutrons to protons). An atom with a N/Z ratio of 1.5 ish is typically radioactive and unstable and can undergo decay which releases energy attempting to reach a more stable state (more favorable N/Z ratio). This is how radiation (gamma included) is produced. The mechanisms involved is how Cobalt-60 decays in order to produce this gamma radiation. I don't know if this information is readily available. We actually sell Cobalt-60 (one of the Fission products) to a few companies for this purpose.

Shielding: How are these doses concentrated? Gamma radiation is highly penetrating and has a large amount of energy and as such needs significant shielding likely in the form of lead (or other dense metals) to prevent the beams from being scattered and effecting other vital organs.

Propogation: How would gamma radiation without any shielding move? Lets say you have a perfect ball of cobalt-60 in the middle of the room how does it move away from that object and how much energy does it lose while moving due to interactions with particles. This can tie into the shielding with how much energy it loses in other mediums such as concrete or lead (commonly used in shielding).

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Entrr, just completed my assignment which was due today! Helpful tips but unfortunately I was limited by word limit, so I couldn't write much. It was pretty dumb to have a word limit I must say though. But thanks once again for the detailed help!