Adaptive Ray Tracing for Radiative Transfer around Point Sources

Abstract

We describe a novel adaptive ray tracing scheme to solve the equation of radiative transfer around point sources in hydrodynamical simulations. The angular resolution adapts to the local hydrodynamical resolution and hence is of use for adaptive meshes as well as adaptive smooth particle hydrodynamical simulations. Recursive creation of rays ensures ease of implementation. The multiple radial integrations needed to solve the time dependent radiative transfer are sped up significantly using a quad-tree once the rays are cast. Simplifications advantageous for methods with one radiation source are briefly discussed. The suggested method is easily generalized to speed up Monte Carlo radiative transfer techniques. In summary a nearly optimal use of long characteristics is presented and aspects of its implementation and comparison to other methods are given.