Radiative transfer in disc galaxies – V. The accuracy of the

We investigate the accuracy of an approximate radiative transfer technique that was first proposed by Kylafis & Bahcall (hereafter the KB approximation) and has been popular in modelling dusty late-type galaxies. We compare realistic galaxy models calculated with the KB approximation with those...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2016-12, Vol.463 (3), p.2912-2912
Main Authors: Lee, Dukhang, Baes, Maarten, Seon, Kwang-Il, Camps, Peter, Verstocken, Sam, Han, Wonyong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Approximation
Astronomical models
Galaxies
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Monte Carlo simulation
Radiative transfer
Scattering
Stars & galaxies
Ultraviolet radiation
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Summary:We investigate the accuracy of an approximate radiative transfer technique that was first proposed by Kylafis & Bahcall (hereafter the KB approximation) and has been popular in modelling dusty late-type galaxies. We compare realistic galaxy models calculated with the KB approximation with those of a three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer code SKIRT. The SKIRT code fully takes into account of the contribution of multiple scattering whereas the KB approximationcalculates only single scattered intensity and multiple scattering components are approximated. We find that the KB approximation gives fairly accurate results if optically thin, face-on galaxies are considered. However, for highly inclined (...) and/or optically thick (central face-on optical depth ...1) galaxy models, the approximation can give rise to substantial errors, sometimes, up to ...40 percent. Moreover, it is also found that the KB approximation is not always physical, sometimes producing infinite intensities at lines of sight with high optical depth in edge-on galaxy models. There is no 'simple recipe' to correct the errors of the KB approximation that is universally applicable to any galaxy models. Therefore, it is recommended that the full radiative transfer calculation be used, even though it is slower than the KB approximation. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stw2201