Monte Carlo simulation of physicochemical processes of liquid water radiolysis - The effects of dissolved oxygen and OH scavenger

The paper describes developments of the physicochemical part of a computer code system that estimates DNA strand break induction on plasmid pBR322 DNA. In order to test the reliability of the model, we evaluated the dielectric function and the time-dependent yield of chemical species in the presence of OH radical scavenger or dissolved oxygen. Results agree with measurements on the radiolysis of liquid water. When a hybrid model of a liquid inelastic cross-section and a vapour elastic cross-section is used, energy deposition by vibrational excitations is estimated to be approximately 11% of total energy deposition.