The radiative transfer equation in the forward-peaked regime

Abstract

In this work we study the radiative transfer equation in the forward-peaked regime in free space. Specifically, it is shown that the equation is well-posed by proving instantaneous regularization of weak solutions for arbitrary initial datum in L1. Classical techniques for hypo-elliptic operators such as averaging lemma are used in the argument. Among the interesting aspect of the proof are the use of the stereographic projection and the presentation of a rigorous expression for the scattering operator given in terms of a fractional Laplace-Beltrami operator on the sphere, or equivalently, a weighted fractional Laplacian analog in the projected plane. Such representations may be used for accurate numerical simulations of the model. As a bonus given by the methodology, we show convergence of Henyey-Greenstein scattering models and vanishing of the solution at time algebraic rate due to scattering diffusion.