Variational Methods for Radiative Transfer
- Speaker: Prof. Dr. Herbert Egger
- Place: Seminar room 1.067, Building 20.30
- Time: 18.1.2016, 14:00 - 15:30
- Invited by: CRC 1173
Abstract
The radiative transfer equation describes the propagation,
absorption and scattering of electromagnetic radiation
traversing a background medium. It is an integro-partial
differential equation in six dimensional phase space governing
the evolution of the spectral radiance. Similar mathematical models
also arise in neutron transport or linearized particle dynamics.
In this talk, we present a variational formulation of radiative
transfer that allows a rigorous analysis of the problem and a
systematic discretization by Galerkin methods. Existence and
uniqueness of solutions on the continuous and discrete level
is obtained in the framework of mixed variational problems.
We also discuss briefly an important asymptotic regime and present
computational results obtained with a particular discretization based
on a truncated spherical harmonics expansion and mixed finite element
methods.