Cyclotrons are utilized in PET scanners to produce short-lived radioactive tracers, such as fluorine-18, which emit positrons. While the original discussion suggested that cyclotrons directly create positrons, they actually facilitate the production of positron-emitting tracers that are injected into patients. Non-linear accelerators like the LHC are impractical for this purpose due to their size and the rapid decay of the tracers. Thus, cyclotrons serve an essential role in the indirect generation of positrons for PET imaging.
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However, it should be mentioned that the tracers often are relatively short-lived and need to be produced on-site (such as fluorine-18 with a half-life of just below 2 hours). The usual way of doing so is to use a cyclotron so, in a sense, the cyclotron is used indirectly to "make positrons" by creating the positron emitters.ZapperZ said:Positrons are produced by tracers (radioactive nuclei) that are injector or digested. These positrons do not come from cyclotrons.
Orodruin said:However, it should be mentioned that the tracers often are relatively short-lived and need to be produced on-site (such as fluorine-18 with a half-life of just below 2 hours). The usual way of doing so is to use a cyclotron so, in a sense, the cyclotron is used indirectly to "make positrons" by creating the positron emitters.
Clearly it would not be viable to have a LHC-size accelerator near every hospital as would be required (again, due to the short half-lives involved). A smaller cyclotron works perfectly well for the purpose.
Which is just what I said. I was essentially tracing down where the OP may have gotten the idea.ZapperZ said:The TRACERS may be produced in an accelerator, but not the POSITRONS for PET scans, which is the premise of the OP in the title.
Zz.