Ant colony method to control variance reduction techniques in the Monte Carlo simulation of clinical electron linear accelerators

The ant colony method is used to control the application of variance reduction techniques to the simulation of clinical electron linear accelerators of use in cancer therapy. In particular, splitting and Russian roulette, two standard variance reduction methods, are considered. The approach can be applied to any accelerator in a straightforward way and permits, in addition, to investigate the “hot” regions of the accelerator, an information which is basic to develop a source model for this therapy tool.