Monte Carlo simulation of sensitivity functions for few-view computed tomography of strongly absorbing media. (English) Zbl 1509.78004

Konovalov, Alexander; Vlasov, Vitaly; Kolchugin, Sergey; Malyshkin, Gennady; Mukhamadiyev, Rim

Monte Carlo Methods Appl. 28, No. 3, 269-278 (2022).

The authors consider the problem of the few-view X-ray computed tomography of strongly absorbing objects. Reconstruction methods have to consider the ill-posed nature of this problem, the availability of very limited data, which are usually affected by errors. The sensitivity function characterizes the contribution of each point of the object to the signal, so it relates the data of the problem and its solution. The authors propose to compute the sensitivity function by a method based on a probabilistic interpretation of energy transport through the object from a source to a detector. To this aim, they used the software package PRIZMA that considers not only ballistic photon trajectories, but also scattering effects. The proposed method was verified by a numerical experiment where a section of a spherical heavy-metal phantom with an air cavity and a 25% density difference is reconstructed.

Reviewer: Pierluigi Maponi (Camerino)

MSC:

78A46	Inverse problems (including inverse scattering) in optics and electromagnetic theory
78A40	Waves and radiation in optics and electromagnetic theory
78A55	Technical applications of optics and electromagnetic theory
78-05	Experimental work for problems pertaining to optics and electromagnetic theory
78M31	Monte Carlo methods applied to problems in optics and electromagnetic theory

Keywords:

few-view X-ray computed tomography (FVCT); strongly absorbing object; sensitivity function; PRIZMA code package; Monte Carlo method; adaptive smoothing; reconstruction algorithm

Software:

PRIZMA; ENDL; GEANT4

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