Bibcode
DOI
Simonneau, E.; Crivellari, L.
Bibliographical reference
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 409, no. 2, p. 830-840.
Advertised on:
6
1993
Journal
Citations
16
Refereed citations
10
Description
In this paper we present a new method to solve those radiative transfer
problems where the scattering term in the source function, i.e., the
frequency-integrated mean intensity J(phi), is independent of both
frequencies and directions. This particular form of the source function,
together with an implicit description of the evolution of the specific
intensities incoming to an individual layer from the neighboring ones,
allows one to solve implicitly the radiative transfer equation layer by
layer. Consequently, J(phi) can be expressed as an explicit function of
the (as yet unknown) specific intensities without any need to solve
numerically a system of equations or to invert matrices. In this way,
the global problem is reduced to a series of one-layer two-point
boundary problems. The resulting algorithm is the representation of the
actual physical process. This, together with the fact that it does not
require a matricial formalism, brings about self-evident advantages in
terms of reliability and numerical accuracy, as well as computational
time and memory storage. As an application, the instance of the spectral
line formation in a two-level atomic model is considered.