Fig. 1

Sketch of reactions of transient species produced by irradiation in pure water (Baldacchino and Katsumura 2010). It includes the secondary electron (e⁻_s that is the ejected electron), the thermalized electron (e⁻_th, whose energy is about 0.025 eV) and the other radicals and molecules described in the text. Axis of time (on the left, vertically), localizations in space (middle, vertically) and LET (top, horizontally) are drawn. The reader is guided from time zero to the homogeneous stage at µs where the values of primary radiolytic yields (G-values) are tabulated and shown with respect to the LET axis (from the lowest LET to the highest one). Red arrows indicate the typical variations of G-values when LET increases