ABSTRACT
Monte Carlo (MC) techniques are widely used in natural and social sciences. There are many different “flavors” of how to work with these techniques. As we have seen in the previous chapter, there is a long tradition of using MC methods in different areas, including medical physics. Therefore, it is difficult to provide a general definition of the MC method. Consequently, a literature search results in many definitions. Some examples of introducing literature, useful to read before working with MC methods, are the corresponding textbook chapters in Numerical Recipes in C (Press et al., 1992) or in “The Review of Particle Physics” (Nakamura et al., 2010) of the Particle Data Group. A nice introduction is also provided by James in “Monte Carlo Theory and Practice” (James, 1980). More references on MC techniques and random number sampling can be found in these reviews.
