Total Cross Section Phenomenological Formulas for X-Ray and Gamma Radiation Interaction With Matter for Different Energies and Absorber Types

Abstract

The in-function log-polynomial regression method for empirical approximations of physical relationships was presented and applied in practice. Thanks to that the single phenomenological equation for the total cross section for X-ray and gamma radiation interaction with matter was presented. The proposed equation depends on the photon energy (from 1 keV to 100 GeV) and absorber type (atomic number from Z = 1 to 100) and takes into considerations all important physical effects of photon interaction, namely, coherent (Rayleigh) and incoherent (Compton) scattering, photo-electric effect and pair/triplet production. Finally, the single formula for the total cross section of photon interaction with matter was presented in the simple form easy to apply in practice, e.g., in radiation protection or in radiation shields designing.