Condensed history Monte Carlo methods for photon transport problems

Abstract

We study methods for accelerating Monte Carlo simulations that retain most of the accuracy of conventional Monte Carlo algorithms. These methods – called Condensed History (CH) methods – have been very successfully used to model the transport of ionizing radiation in turbid systems. Our primary objective is to determine whether or not such methods might apply equally well to the transport of photons in biological tissue. In an attempt to unify the derivations, we invoke results obtained first by Lewis, Goudsmit and Saunderson and later improved by Larsen and Tolar. We outline how two of the most promising of the CH models – one based on satisfying certain similarity relations and the second making use of a scattering phase function that permits only discrete directional changes – can be developed using these approaches. The main idea is to exploit the connection between the space-angle moments of the radiance and the angular moments of the scattering phase function. We compare the results obtained when the two CH models studied are used to simulate an idealized tissue transport problem. The numerical results support our findings based on the theoretical derivations and suggest that CH models should play a useful role in modeling light-tissue interactions.