tan
tan x tan z
2
(1).
x2 z2
(2).
1 min cx , cz
2 max cx , cz
max
(3).
x 2
c
y 2
c
Then we have
2 cxcz
P cos1 1 x z
c c
2
for 1
for 1 2
(4),
(5),
and
x
z
P cos1 c cos1 c x z
c c
2
for 2 max
(6).
where the denominator cx cz is the area of the rectangle which normalizes P() to unit area for uniform
P(x) and P(z).
The probability density distribution, P(), for the case illustrated on the left of Figure 1 is shown on the
right of the figure. It is immediately obvious that P() is far from uniform.
Figure 1. Calculation of the probability density for a polar angle from an ideal guide characterized by uniform
horizontal and vertical divergence angles in the range 0 cx and 0 cz respectively.
P d
P d
max 1
1
1 3 2
3
3
1 2
1 1
ln
cos
cos
1 2 max 1 ln max
2
max
31 2
4
max 2
max 1
max
max
2
(7).
2
For the simpler case of equal horizontal and vertical divergence cx = cz = c the above equations for P()
reduce to
2 c2
for c
(8)
and
P 2cos 1 c 2
c
2
for c 2c
(9).
Figure 2. Probability density for a polar angle from an ideal neutron guide characterized by equal uniform horizontal
and vertical divergence angles in the range 0 c.
3 2 2
2
1
ln
1
c
3
32 3 2 2
0.765c
(10).
For a surface source, MCNP selects according to the distribution of = cos, where
P d P d
(11)
therefore, we have
P
sin
(12),
where the approximation represents the small angle approximation appropriate to neutron guides.
Therefore, for cx cz, we have from Eq. (4)
2cxcz
for 1
(13),
1
1
P cos 1
2 1 cxcz
2
for 2 1
(14),
1
cx
cz
1
1
P
cos
cos
2 1
2 1 cxcz
2
The corresponding distribution for the distribution shown in Figure 1 is shown in Figure 3 (note that
for cos(1), the distribution is approximately uniform).
Figure 3. The probability density distribution of = cos(), corresponding to the distribution of polar angles, , shown in
Figure 1.
1
2 c2
for cos c
(16)
1
c
1
P
2cos
2 1 c2
2
(17).
The corresponding distribution for the distribution shown in Figure 2 is shown in Figure 4 (note that
for cos(c), the distribution is approximately uniform).
Figure 4. The probability density distribution of = cos(), corresponding to the distribution of polar angles, , shown in
Figure 2.