Radiation physics for medical physicists

This book summarizes the radiation physics knowledge that professionals working in medical physics need to master for efficient and safe dealings with ionizing radiation. It contains eight chapters, each chapter covering a specific group of subjects related to radiation physics and is intended as a textbook for a course in radiation physics in medical-physics graduate programs. However, the book may also be of interest to the large number of professionals, not only medical physicists, who in their daily occupations deal with various aspects of medical physics and find a need to improve their understanding of radiation physics. The main target audience for this book is graduate students studying for M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in medical physics, who have to possess the necessary physics and mathematics background knowledge to be able to follow and master the complete textbook. Medical residents, technology students and biomedical engineering students may find certain sections too challenging or esoteric, yet they will find many sections interesting and useful in their studies. Candidates preparing for professional certification exams in any of the medical physics subspecialties should find the material useful, and some of the material would also help candidates preparing for certification examinations in medical dosimetry or radiation-related medical specialties. Numerous textbooks are available covering the various subspecialties of medical physics but they generally make a transition from the elementary basic physics directly into the intricacies of the given medical physics subspecialty. The intent of this textbook is to provide the missing link between the elementary physics on the one hand and the physics of the subspecialties on the other hand.