Single ionization of liquid water by the impact of fast, but nonrelativistic heavy charged particles is reviewed. Special attention is focused on protons, alpha particles, and carbon ions. This phenomenon has been extensively studied by using theoretical methods during the last decades. Quantum-mechanical as well as semiclassical approaches have been developed. Nevertheless, experimental studies in this field are very scarce. Based upon both theoretical and experimental results, semiempirical formalisms have been reported. At the beginning, the first Born (B1) approximation emerged with some success in reproducing ionization cross sections corresponding to impact energies above a few hundreds of keV/u. The introduction of the distorted-wave formalism brought a remarkable improvement with respect to B1, mainly because of reproduction of the well-known two-center effects. The B1 approximation is treated here in order to be used as a reference model for all the subsequent comparisons. Also presented are the distorted-wave formalism and its variants. On the other hand, available experimental works for measuring ionization cross sections corresponding to water vapor targeted by hydrogen, helium, and carbon ions are summarized. In addition, the most relevant semiempirical approaches intended to calculate water ionization cross sections are addressed. Some of the experimental single ionization cross sections mentioned above are compared to those determined by the distorted-wave and semiempirical formalisms for liquid water. Finally, perspectives on the studies of the ionization problem are briefly commented. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.65 203229Friedland, W., Jacob, P., Paretzke, H., Simulation of light ion induced DNA damage patterns (2006) Radiat. Prot. Dosim., 122, p. 116Dingfelder, M., Inokuti, M., Paretzke, H., Inelastic-collision cross sections of liquid water for interactions of energetic protons (2000) Radiat. Phys. Chem., 59, p. 255Rudd, M.E., Kim, Y., Madison, D.H., Electron production in proton collisions with atoms and molecules: energy distributions (1992) Rev. Mod. Phys., 64, p. 441Crothers, D., McCann, J., Ionisations of atoms by ion impact (1983) J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys., 16, p. 3229Hansen, J.P., Kocbach, L., Ejection angles of fast delta electrons from K-shell ionisation induced by energetic ions (1989) J. Phys. B, 22, pp. L71Bernal, M.A., Liendo, J.A., The HKS model for electron production in liquid water by light ions (2006) Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B, 251, p. 171Bernal, M.A., Liendo, J.A., Inelastic-collision cross sections for the interactions of totally stripped H, He and C ions with liquid water (2007) Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B, 262, p. 1Belkicd́, D., A quantum theory of ionisation in fast collisions between ions and atomic systems (1978) J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Phys., 11, p. 3529McDowell, M., Coleman, J., (1970) Introduction to the Theory of Ion-Atoms Collisions, , North-Holland, AmsterdamCheshire, I.M., Continuum distorted wave approximationresonant charge transfer by fast protons in atomic hydrogen (1964) Proc. Phys. Soc., 84, p. 89Landau, L.D., Lifshitz, E.M., (1977) Quantum Mechanics: Nonrelativistic Theory, , Pergamon Press, BarcelonaFainstein, P.D., Ponce, V.H., Rivarola, R.D., Electron emission from multielectronic atoms by ion impact at intermediate and high energies (1989) J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys., 22, p. 1207Stolterfoht, N., DuBois, R., Rivarola, R.D., (1997) Electron Emission in Heavy Ion-Atom Collisions, , Springer, BerlinSecondary electron spectra from charge particle interactions (1996) Tech. Rep., 55. , ICRU, Bethesda, MDToburen, L.H., Nakai, M.Y., Langley, R.A., Measurement of high-energy charge-transfer cross sections for incident protons and atomic hydrogen in various gases (1968) Phys. Rev., 171, p. 114Toburen, L.H., Wilson, W.E., Energy and angular distributions of electrons ejected from water vapour by 0.3-1.5MeV protons (1977) J. Chem. Phys., 66, p. 5202Toburen, L.H., Wilson, W.E., Popovich, R.J., Secondary electron emission from ionization of water vapor by 0.3 to 2.0MeV He+ and He2+ ions (1980) Radiat. Res., 82, p. 27Wilson, W.E., Miller, J.H., Toburen, L.H., Differential cross sections for ionization of methane, ammonia and water vapour by high velocity ions (1984) J. Chem. Phys., 80, p. 5601Rudd, M.E., Goffe, T.V., Dubois, R.D., Cross sections for ionization of water vapor by 7-4000keV protons (1985) Phys. Rev. A, 31, p. 492Rudd, M.E., Itoh, A., Goffe, T.V., Cross sections for ionization, capture, and loss for 5-450keV He+ on water vapor (1985) Phys. Rev. A, 32, p. 2499Bolorizadeh, M.A., Rudd, M.E., Angular and energy dependence of cross sections for ejection of electrons from water vapor. II. 15-150keV proton impact (1996) Phys. Rev. A, 33, p. 888Werner, U., Beckord, K., Becker, J., 3D imaging of the collision-induced Coulomb fragmentation of water molecules (1995) Phys. Rev. Lett., 74, p. 1962Gobet, F., Eden, S., Coupier, B., Ionization of water by (20-150)keV protons: separation of direct-ionization and electron-capture processes (2004) Phys. Rev. A, 70, p. 062716Ohsawa, D., Kawauchi, K., Hirabayashi, M., An apparatus for measuring the energy and angular distribution of secondary electrons emitted from water vapor by fast heavy-ion impact (2005) Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B, 227, p. 431Emfietzoglou, D., Garcia-Molina, R., Kyriakou, I., A dielectric response study of the electronic stopping power of liquid water for energetic protons and a new I-value for water (2009) Phys. Med. Biol., 54, p. 3451Rudd, M.E., Differential cross sections for secondary electron production by proton impact (1988) Phys. Rev. A, 38, p. 6129Stopping powers and ranges for protons and alpha particles (1993) Tech. Rep., 49. , ICRU, Bethesda, MDFano, U., Penetration of protons, alpha particles, and mesons (1963) Annu. Rev. Nucl. Sci., 13 (1), pp. 1-66Hayashi, H., Watanabe, N., Udagawa, Y., The complete optical spectrum of liquid water measured by inelastic X-ray scattering (2000) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 97, p. 6264Dingfelder, M., Hantke, D., Inokuti, M., Electron inelastic scattering cross sections in liquid water (1998) Radiat. Phys. Chem., 53, p. 1Heller, J.M., Hamm, R.N., Birchoff, R.D., Collective oscillation in liquid water (1976) J. Chem. Phys., 60, p. 3483Emfietzoglou, D., Moscovitch, M., Inelastic collision characteristics of electrons in liquid water (2002) Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B, 193, p. 71http://www.nist.gov/physlab/data/ffast/index.cfmFainstein, P.D., Ponce, V.H., Rivarola, R.D., Two-centre effects in ionization by ion impact (1991) J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys., 24, p. 3091Olivera, G.H., Rivarola, R.D., Fainstein, P.D., Ionization of the excited states of hydrogen by proton impact (1995) Phys. Rev. A, 51 (1), p. 847Belkicd́, D., Electron detachment from the negative hydrogen ion by proton impact (1997) J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys., 30, p. 1731Fainstein, P.D., Olivera, G.H., Rivarola, R.D., Theoretical calculations of the stopping power for protons traversing H, He and simple molecular targets (1996) Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B, 107, p. 19Schutten, J., DeHeer, F.J., Moustafa, H.R., Cross and partial ionization cross sections for electrons on water vapor in the energy range 0.1-20keV (1966) J. Chem. Phys., 44, p. 3924Stopping of ions heavier than Helium (2005) Tech. Rep., 73. , ICRU, Bethesda, MDDal Cappello, C., Champion, C., Boudrioua, O., Theoretical and experimental investigations of electron emission in C6+-H2O collisions (2009) Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B, 267, p. 781Emfietzoglou, D., Nikjoo, H., Pathak, A., Electronic cross sections for proton transport in liquid water based on optical-data models (2006) Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B, 249, p. 26Gobet, F., Farizon, B., Farizon, M., Total, partial, and electron-capture cross sections for ionization of water vapor by 20-150keV protons (2001) Phys. Rev. Lett., 86, p. 3751Belkicd́, D., Quantum-mechanical methods in loss-excitation and loss-ionization in fast ion-atom collisions (2009) Adv. Quantum Chem., 56, p. 251Belkicd́, D., Manccaroňev, I., Hanssen, J., Four-body methods for high-energy ion-atom collisions (2008) Rev. Mod. Phys., 80, p. 249Kaneda, M., Shimizu, M., Hayakawa, T., Mass spectrometric study of collision interactions of fast charged particles with water and NaCl solutions (2009) Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B, 267, p. 908