Photon diffusion coefficient in an absorbing medium

A number of investigators have recently claimed, based on both analysis from transport theory and transport-theory-based Monte Carlo calculations, that the diffusion coefficient for photon migration should be taken to be independent of absorption. We show that these analyses are flawed and that the correct way of extracting diffusion theory from transport theory gives an absorption-dependent diffusion coefficient. Experiments by two different sets of investigators give conflicting results concerning whether the diffusion coefficient depends on absorption. The discrepancy between theory and the earlier set of experiments poses an interesting challenge. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America [S0740-3232(99)02205-X].