Monte Carlo simulation of sensitivity functions for few-view computed tomography of strongly absorbing media (Q2171938)

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.