ITEM—QM solutions for EM problems in image reconstruction exemplary for the Compton Camera

Imaginary time expectation maximation (ITEM), a new algorithm for expectation maximization problems based on the quantum mechanics energy minimalization via imaginary (euclidian) time evolution is presented. Both (the algorithm as well as the implementation (http://www.johannes-pauli.de/item/index.html) are published under the terms of General GNU public License (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html). Due to its generality ITEM is applicable to various image reconstruction problems like CT, PET, SPECT, NMR, Compton Camera, tomosynthesis as well as any other energy minimization problem. The choice of the optimal ITEM Hamiltonian is discussed and numerical results are presented for the Compton Camera.