The macro response Monte Carlo method for electron transport
The main goal of this thesis was to prove the feasibility of basing electron depth dose calculations in a phantom on first-principles single scatter physics, in an amount of time that is equal to or better than current electron Monte Carlo methods. The Macro Response Monte Carlo (MRMC) method achieves run times that are on the order of conventional electron transport methods such as condensed history, with the potential to be much faster. This is possible because MRMC is a Local-to-Global method, meaning the problem is broken down into two separate transport calculations. The first stage is a local, in this case, single scatter calculation, which generates probability distribution functions (PDFs) to describe the electron's energy, position and trajectory after leaving the local geometry, a small sphere or "kugel" A number of local kugel calculations were run for calcium and carbon, creating a library of kugel data sets over a range of incident energies (0.25 MeV - 8 MeV) and sizes (0.025 cm to 0.1 cm in radius). The second transport stage is a global calculation, where steps that conform to the size of the kugels in the library are taken through the global geometry. For each step, the appropriate PDFs from the MRMC library are sampled to determine the electron's new energy, position and trajectory. The electron is immediately advanced to the end of the step and then chooses another kugel to sample, which continues until transport is completed. The MRMC global stepping code was benchmarked as a series of subroutines inside of the Peregrine Monte Carlo code. It was compared to Peregrine's class II condensed history electron transport package, EGS4, and MCNP for depth dose in simple phantoms having density inhomogeneities. Since the kugels completed in the library were of relatively small size, the zoning of the phantoms was scaled down from a clinical size, so that the energy deposition algorithms for spreading dose across 5-10 zones per kugel could be tested. Most resulting depth dose calculations were within 2-3% of well-benchmarked codes, with one excursion to 4%. This thesis shows that the concept of using single scatter-based physics in clinical calculations would not only be possible, but would likely be more efficient than current methods, provided large kugels were generated.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-Eng-48
- OSTI ID:
- 3847
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-LR-124158; DP0102052; ON: DE00003847
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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