Maximum Likelihood Reconstruction for Emission Tomography

Previous models for emission tomography (ET) do not distinguish the physics of ET from that of transmission tomography. We give a more accurate general mathematical model for ET where an unknown emission density λ = λ(x, y, z) generates, and is to be reconstructed from, the number of counts n*(d) in each of D detector units d. Within the model, we give an algorithm for determining an estimate λ of λ which maximizes the probability p(n*|λ) of...