Issue |
A&A
Volume 670, February 2023
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A41 | |
Number of page(s) | 22 | |
Section | Stellar atmospheres | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202243997 | |
Published online | 03 February 2023 |
Progress towards a 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code for outflow wind modelling
1
Masaryk university, Faculty of Science,
Kotlářská 2,
Brno, Czech Republic
e-mail: fisak@physics.muni.cz
2
Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences,
Fričova 298,
251 65
Ondřejov, Czech Republic
3
Heidelberger Institut für Theoretische Studien,
Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 35,
69118
Heidelberg, Germany
Received:
10
May
2022
Accepted:
24
October
2022
Context. Radiative transfer modelling of expanding stellar envelopes is an important task in their analysis. To account for inhomogeneities and deviations from spherical symmetry, it is necessary to develop a 3 D approach to radiative transfer modelling.
Aims. We present a 3 D Monte Carlo code for radiative transfer modelling, which is aimed to calculate the plasma ionisation and excitation state with the statistical equilibrium equations, moreover, to implement photon-matter coupling. As a first step, we present our Monte Carlo radiation transfer routines developed and tested from scratch.
Methods. The background model atmosphere (the temperature, density, and velocity structure) can use an arbitrary grid referred to as the modGrid. The radiative transfer was solved using the Monte Carlo method in a Cartesian grid, referred to as the propGrid. This Cartesian grid was created based on the structure of the modGrid; correspondence between these two grids was set at the beginning of the calculations and then kept fixed. The propGrid can be either regular or adaptive; two modes of adaptive grids were tested. The accuracy and calculation speed for different propGrids was analysed. Photon interaction with matter was handled using the Lucy’s macroatom approach. Test calculations using our code were compared with the results obtained by a different Monte Carlo radiative transfer code.
Results. Our method and the related code for the 3 D radiative transfer using the Monte Carlo and macroatom methods offer an accurate and reliable solution for the radiative transfer problem, and are especially promising for the inclusion and treatment of 3 D inhomogeneities.
Key words: stars: atmospheres / stars: winds, outflows / radiative transfer / methods: numerical
© The Authors 2023
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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