  The origin of the "red" emission bands in the 600 nm-700 nm region, observed
in quartz crystals used for luminescence dating and environmental dosimetry, is
still controversial. Their reported spectral and lifetime characteristics are
often similar to those of oxygen dangling bonds ("non-bridging oxygen hole
centers, NBOHCs") in glassy silicon dioxide. The presence of these "surface
radical type" centers in quartz crystal requires sites with highly disordered
local structure forming nano-voids characteristic to the structure of glassy
SiO2. Such sites are introduced in the tracks of nuclear particles
({\alpha}-irradiation, neutrons, ions). In case of electrons they are created
only at large doses (>5 GGy), approaching amorphization threshold. This study
reports a comparison of NBOHC photoluminescence in synthetic quartz and silica
glass irradiated by neutrons or 2.5 MeV electrons, and suggests that the red
NBOHC photoluminescence band in quartz may serve as a selective marker of an
exposure to particle irradiation. It can be distinguished from other red-region
luminescence bands by lifetimes in 5-25 {\mu}s range, characteristic
vibrational structures in the low-temperature spectra and presence of resonance
excitation band at ~620 nm.
