In mathematical physics Linear transport theory is the study of equations describing the migration of particles or energy within a host medium when such migration involves random absorption,

emission Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: **Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit radi ...

and

scattering Scattering is a term used in physics to describe a wide range of physical processes where moving particles or radiation of some form, such as light or sound, are forced to deviate from a straight trajectory by localized non-uniformities (including ...

events. Subject to certain simplifying assumptions, this is a common and useful framework for describing the scattering of light ( radiative transfer) or

neutrons The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons behave ...

( neutron transport). Given the laws of individual collision events (in the form of absorption coefficients and scattering kernels/phase functions) the problem of linear transport theory is then to determine the result of a large number of random collisions governed by these laws. This involves computing exact or approximate solutions of the transport equation, and there are various forms of the transport equation that have been studied. Common varieties include steady-state vs time-dependent, scalar vs vector (the latter including polarization), and monoenergetic vs multi-energy (multi-group).

References

* * * Mathematical physics {{math-physics-stub

See also

References