Dose from slow negative muons.

Conversion coefficients from fluence to ambient dose equivalent, from fluence to maximum dose equivalent and quality factors for slow negative muons are examined in detail. Negative muons, when stopped, produce energetic photons, electrons and a variety of high-LET particles. Contribution from each particle type to the dose equivalent is calculated. The results show that for the high-LET particles the details of energy spectra and decay yields are important for accurate dose estimates. For slow negative muons the ambient dose equivalent does not always yield a conservative estimate for the protection quantities. Especially, the skin equivalent dose is strongly underestimated if the radiation-weighting factor of unity for slow muons is used. Comparisons to earlier studies are presented.