Monte Carlo Methods for Radiation Transport


Book Description

This book is a guide to the use of Monte Carlo techniques in radiation transport. This topic is of great interest for medical physicists. Praised as a "gold standard" for accurate radiotherapy dose calculations, Monte Carlo has stimulated a high level of research activity that has produced thousands of papers within the past few years. The book is designed primarily to address the needs of an academically inclined medical physicist who wishes to learn the technique, as well as experienced users of standard Monte Carlo codes who wish to gain insight into the underlying mathematics of Monte Carlo algorithms. The book focuses on the fundamentals—giving full attention to and explaining the very basic concepts. It also includes advanced topics and covers recent advances such as transport of charged particles in magnetic fields and the grid-based solvers of the Boltzmann equation.




Monte Carlo Methods for Particle Transport


Book Description

Fully updated with the latest developments in the eigenvalue Monte Carlo calculations and automatic variance reduction techniques and containing an entirely new chapter on fission matrix and alternative hybrid techniques. This second edition explores the uses of the Monte Carlo method for real-world applications, explaining its concepts and limitations. Featuring illustrative examples, mathematical derivations, computer algorithms, and homework problems, it is an ideal textbook and practical guide for nuclear engineers and scientists looking into the applications of the Monte Carlo method, in addition to students in physics and engineering, and those engaged in the advancement of the Monte Carlo methods. Describes general and particle-transport-specific automated variance reduction techniques Presents Monte Carlo particle transport eigenvalue issues and methodologies to address these issues Presents detailed derivation of existing and advanced formulations and algorithms with real-world examples from the author’s research activities




Exploring Monte Carlo Methods


Book Description

Exploring Monte Carlo Methods, Second Edition provides a valuable introduction to the numerical methods that have come to be known as "Monte Carlo." This unique and trusted resource for course use, as well as researcher reference, offers accessible coverage, clear explanations and helpful examples throughout. Building from the basics, the text also includes applications in a variety of fields, such as physics, nuclear engineering, finance and investment, medical modeling and prediction, archaeology, geology and transportation planning. - Provides a comprehensive yet concise treatment of Monte Carlo methods - Uses the famous "Buffon's needle problem" as a unifying theme to illustrate the many aspects of Monte Carlo methods - Includes numerous exercises and useful appendices on: Certain mathematical functions, Bose Einstein functions, Fermi Dirac functions and Watson functions




Advanced Monte Carlo for Radiation Physics, Particle Transport Simulation and Applications


Book Description

This book focuses on the state of the art of Monte Carlo methods in radiation physics and particle transport simulation and applications. Special attention is paid to algorithm development for modeling, and the analysis of experiments and measurements in a variety of fields.




Monte Carlo Techniques in Radiation Therapy


Book Description

About ten years after the first edition comes this second edition of Monte Carlo Techniques in Radiation Therapy: Introduction, Source Modelling, and Patient Dose Calculations, thoroughly updated and extended with the latest topics, edited by Frank Verhaegen and Joao Seco. This book aims to provide a brief introduction to the history and basics of Monte Carlo simulation, but again has a strong focus on applications in radiotherapy. Since the first edition, Monte Carlo simulation has found many new applications, which are included in detail. The applications sections in this book cover the following: Modelling transport of photons, electrons, protons, and ions Modelling radiation sources for external beam radiotherapy Modelling radiation sources for brachytherapy Design of radiation sources Modelling dynamic beam delivery Patient dose calculations in external beam radiotherapy Patient dose calculations in brachytherapy Use of artificial intelligence in Monte Carlo simulations This book is intended for both students and professionals, both novice and experienced, in medical radiotherapy physics. It combines overviews of development, methods, and references to facilitate Monte Carlo studies.




The Monte Carlo Ray-Trace Method in Radiation Heat Transfer and Applied Optics


Book Description

A groundbreaking guide dedicated exclusively to the MCRT method in radiation heat transfer and applied optics The Monte Carlo Ray-Trace Method in Radiation Heat Transfer and Applied Optics offers the most modern and up-to-date approach to radiation heat transfer modelling and performance evaluation of optical instruments. The Monte Carlo ray-trace (MCRT) method is based on the statistically predictable behavior of entities, called rays, which describe the paths followed by energy bundles as they are emitted, reflected, scattered, refracted, diffracted and ultimately absorbed. The author – a noted expert on the subject – covers a wide variety of topics including the mathematics and statistics of ray tracing, the physics of thermal radiation, basic principles of geometrical and physical optics, radiant heat exchange among surfaces and within participating media, and the statistical evaluation of uncertainty of results obtained using the method. The book is a guide to help formulate and solve models that accurately describe the distribution of radiant energy in thermal and optical systems of practical engineering interest. This important guide: Combines radiation heat transfer and applied optics into a single discipline Covers the MCRT method, which has emerged as the dominant tool for radiation heat transfer modelling Helps readers to formulate and solve models that describe the distribution of radiant energy Features pages of color images and a wealth of line drawings Written for faculty and graduate students in mechanical and aerospace engineering and applied optics professionals, The Monte Carlo Ray-Trace Method in Radiation Heat Transfer and Applied Optics is the first book dedicated exclusively to the MCRT method.




Monte Carlo Transport of Electrons and Photons


Book Description

For ten days at the end of September, 1987, a group of about 75 scientists from 21 different countries gathered in a restored monastery on a 750 meter high piece of rock jutting out of the Mediterranean Sea to discuss the simulation of the transport of electrons and photons using Monte Carlo techniques. When we first had the idea for this meeting, Ralph Nelson, who had organized a previous course at the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture, suggested that Erice would be the ideal place for such a meeting. Nahum, Nelson and Rogers became Co-Directors of the Course, with the help of Alessandro Rindi, the Director of the School of Radiation Damage and Protection, and Professor Antonino Zichichi, Director of the "Ettore Majorana" Centre. The course was an outstanding success, both scientifically and socially, and those at the meeting will carry the marks of having attended, both intellectually and on a personal level where many friendships were made. The scientific content of the course was at a very high caliber, both because of the hard work done by all the lecturers in preparing their lectures (e. g. , complete copies of each lecture were available at the beginning of the course) and because of the high quality of the "students", many of whom were accomplished experts in the field. The outstanding facilities of the Centre contributed greatly to the success. This volume contains the formal record of the course lectures.




A Monte Carlo Primer


Book Description

The mathematical technique of Monte Carlo, as applied to the transport of sub-atomic particles, has been described in numerous reports and books since its formal development in the 1940s. Most of these instructional efforts have been directed either at the mathematical basis of the technique or at its practical application as embodied in the several large, formal computer codes available for performing Monte Carlo transport calculations. This book attempts to fill what appears to be a gap in this Monte Carlo literature between the mathematics and the software. Thus, while the mathematical basis for Monte Carlo transport is covered in some detail, emphasis is placed on the application of the technique to the solution of practical radiation transport problems. This is done by using the PC as the basic teaching tool. This book assumes the reader has a knowledge of integral calculus, neutron transport theory, and Fortran programming. It also assumes the reader has available a PC with a Fortran compiler. Any PC of reasonable size should be adequate to reproduce the examples or solve the exercises contained herein. The authors believe it is important for the reader to execute these examples and exercises, and by doing so to become accomplished at preparing appropriate software for solving radiation transport problems using Monte Carlo. The step from the software described in this book to the use of production Monte Carlo codes should be straightforward.




Microdosimetry


Book Description

Experimental microdosimetry deals with the measurement of charged particle energy deposition in tissue equivalent volumes, ranging in size from nanometres to micrometres. Microdosimetry is employed to improve our understanding of the relationship between radiation energy deposition, the resulting biological effects, and the appropriate quantities to be used in characterizing and quantifying radiation quality. Although many reviews and contributions to the field have been published over the past fifty years, this new book is the first to provide a single, up to date, and easily accessible account of experimental microdosimetry. This book is designed to be used in medical, radiation, and health physics courses and by Master’s and PhD students. In addition to serving as an introductory text to the field for graduate students, this book will also be of interest as a teaching and reference resource for graduate supervisors and established researchers. Drs. Lennart Lindborg and Anthony Waker have spent a life-time career in experimental microdosimetry research in academic, industrial and regulatory environments and have observed the development of the field from its early days as a recognized discipline; they bring to this book particular knowledge and experience in the design, construction, operation and use of tissue equivalent gas ionization counters and chambers.




Monte Carlo Methods


Book Description

This introduction to Monte Carlo Methods seeks to identify and study the unifying elements that underlie their effective application. It focuses on two basic themes. The first is the importance of random walks as they occur both in natural stochastic systems and in their relationship to integral and differential equations. The second theme is that of variance reduction in general and importance sampling in particular as a technique for efficient use of the methods. Random walks are introduced with an elementary example in which the modelling of radiation transport arises directly from a schematic probabilistic description of the interaction of radiation with matter. Building on that example, the relationship between random walks and integral equations is outlined. The applicability of these ideas to other problems is shown by a clear and elementary introduction to the solution of the Schrodinger equation by random walks. The detailed discussion of variance reduction includes Monte Carlo evaluation of finite-dimensional integrals. Special attention is given to importance sampling, partly because of its intrinsic interest in quadrature, partly because of its general usefulness in the solution of integral equations. One significant feature is that Monte Carlo Methods treats the "Metropolis algorithm" in the context of sampling methods, clearly distinguishing it from importance sampling. Physicists, chemists, statisticians, mathematicians, and computer scientists will find Monte Carlo Methods a complete and stimulating introduction.