arXiv · astro-ph/9905291
Radiative Transfer in Clumpy and Fractal Media
Abstract
A Monte Carlo model of radiative transfer in multi-phase dusty media is applied to the situation of stars and clumpy dust in a sphere or a disk. The distribution of escaping and absorbed photons are shown for various filling factors and densities. Analytical methods of approximating the escaping fraction of radiation, based on the Mega-Grains approach, are discussed. Comparison with the Monte Carlo results shows that the escape probability formulae provide a reasonable approximation of the escaping/absorbed fractions, for a wide range of parameters characterizing a clumpy dusty medium. A possibly more realistic model of the interstellar medium is one in which clouds have a self-similar hierarchical structure of denser and denser clumps within clumps, resulting in a fractal distribution of gas and dust. Monte Carlo simulations of radiative transfer in such multi-phase fractal media are compared with the two-phase clumpy case.
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Frank Varosi, Eli Dwek. 1999-05-21. Radiative Transfer in Clumpy and Fractal Media. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9905291
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