Influence of ionization cross-section data on the Monte Carlo calculations of nanodosimetric quantities

In this work, we discuss the effect of cross-section data in the determination of nanodosimetric quantities, such as ionization clustersize
distributions and mean cluster sizes. In particular, two different theoretical approaches to determine secondary electron distributions
after proton interactions in nitrogen and propane were tested by means of a Monte Carlo code. The results show that differences of
10–15% in the cross-section data lead to differences of up to 10–20% in the calculated mean cluster sizes, especially at low energies,
suggesting the need for new, reliable and consistent experimental cross-section data.