We propose a new data structure for the compact encoding of a level-of detail (LOD) model of a three-dimensional scalar field based on unstructured tetrahedral meshes. Such data structure, called a half-edge tree (HET), is built through the iterative application of a half-edge collapse, i.e. by contracting an edge to one of its endpoints. We also show that selective refined meshes extracted from an HET contain on average about 34% and up to 75% less tetrahedra than those extracted from an LOD model built through a general edge collapse.