High-speed evaluation of track-structure Monte Carlo electron transport simulations

There are many instances where Monte Carlo simulation using the track-structure method for electron transport is necessary for the accurate analytical computation and estimation of dose and other tally data. Because of the large electron interaction cross-sections and highly anisotropic scattering behavior, the track-structure method requires an enormous amount of computation time. For microdosimetry, radiation biology and other applications involving small site and tally sizes, low electron energies or high-Z/low-Z material interfaces where the track-structure method is preferred, a computational device called a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is capable of executing track-structure Monte Carlo electron-transport simulations as fast as or faster than a standard computer can complete an identical simulation using the condensed history (CH) technique. In this paper, data from FPGA-based track-structure electron-transport computations are presented for five test cases, from simple slab-style geometries to radiation biology applications involving electrons incident on endosteal bone surface cells. For the most complex test case presented, an FPGA is capable of evaluating track-structure electron-transport problems more than 500 times faster than a standard computer can perform the same track-structure simulation and with comparable accuracy.