Methods for variance reduction in Monte Carlo simulations

Monte Carlo simulations are widely considered to be the gold standard for studying the propagation of light in turbid media. However, due to the probabilistic nature of these simulations, large numbers of photons are often required in order to generate relevant results. Here, we present methods for reduction in the variance of dose distribution in a computational volume. Dose distribution is computed via tracing of a large number of rays, and tracking the absorption and scattering of the rays within discrete voxels that comprise the volume. Variance reduction is shown here using quasi-random sampling, interaction forcing for weakly scattering media, and dose smoothing via bi-lateral filtering. These methods, along with the corresponding performance enhancements are detailed here.