An efficient method for the solution of 3-D radiative transfer problems

Abstract A novel efficient method for the solution of radiative transfer problems in media of two or three dimensions is presented. The approach is based on an implicit discretization of the transfer equation in Cartesian frames. The resulting linear system of equations is solved by a combination of recursion and iteration. Since the explicit handling of large matrices is avoided, the corresponding code is relatively simple and runs well on all types of modern computers. As examples of applications, we consider several spherical and non-spherical dust clouds heated by a central source and derive their temperature distributions and emergent spectra. Comparison of our spherical models with those of Rowan-Robinson shows good agreement.