?

Radiative
Transfer:
Interpreting
the observed light

References:
A standard book on radiative
processes in astrophysics is: Rybicki &
Lightman Radiative Processes in
Astrophysics Wiley-Interscience
For radiative transfer in particular
there are some excellent lecture notes
on-line by Rob Rutten Radiative
transfer in stellar atmospheres
http://www.astro.uu.nl/~rutten/Course_notes.html

Radiation as a messenger

I,in

I,out

Images

One image is worth

a 1000 words...

Hubble Image

One spectrum is worth

a 1000 images...

Spectra

van Kempen et al. (2010)

Radiative quantities
Basic radiation quantity: intensity

erg
I(,) =
2
s cm Hz ster
Definition of mean intensity

1
=
J()

erg
4 I(,)d = s cm2 Hz ster

Definition of flux

F() =

r
I(,) d =

erg
s cm2 Hz

Thermal radiation
Planck function:
In dense isothermal medium, the radiation field is in thermodynamic
equilibrium. The intensity of such an equilibrium radiation field is:

2h 3 /c 2
I = B (T)
[exp(h /kT) 1]

(Planck function)

In Rayleigh-Jeans limit (h<<kT)

this becomes a power law:

2
2kT 2
I = B (T)
c2

Wien

Rayleigh-Jeans

Thermal radiation
Blackbody emission:
An opaque surface of a given temperature emits a flux
according to the following formula:

F = B (T)
Integrated over all frequencies (i.e. total emitted energy):

F d = 0 B (T)d

If you work this out you get:

F =T4

5.67 105 erg/cm2 /K 4 /s

Radiative transfer
In vaccuum: intensity is constant along a ray
rB2
FA = 2 FB
rA

Example: a star

rB2
A = 2 B
rA
F = I

I = const

Non-vacuum: emission and absorption change intensity:

dI

= S
I
ds
Emission

(s is path length)
Extinction

Radiative transfer
Radiative transfer equation again:

dI
= (S I )
ds
Over length scales larger than 1/ intensity I tends to
approach source function S.

lfree,

Photon
mean free path:

Optical depth of a
cloud of size L:

In case of local thermodynamic

equilibrium: S is Planck function:

1
=

L

lfree,

= L

S = B (T)

Rad. trans. through a cloud of

fixed T
Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Rad. trans. through a cloud of

fixed T
Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Rad. trans. through a cloud of

fixed T
Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Rad. trans. through a cloud of

fixed T
Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Rad. trans. through a cloud of

fixed T
Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Rad. trans. through a cloud of

fixed T
Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Rad. trans. through a cloud of

fixed T
Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Rad. trans. through a cloud of

fixed T
Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Formal radiative transfer

solution

Radiative transfer equation again:

dI
= (S I )
ds
Observed flux from single-temperature slab:

Iobs= I0e + (1 e ) B (T)

B (T)

for

and

I0 = 0

Emission vs. absorption lines

Line Profile:

K e

2 /

line

line

1 2kT
line
c
(for thermal broadning)

Emission vs. absorption lines

Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Emission vs. absorption lines

Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Emission vs. absorption lines

Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Emission vs. absorption lines

Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Emission vs. absorption lines

Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Emission vs. absorption lines

Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Emission vs. absorption lines

Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Emission vs. absorption lines

Tcloud
I,bg
Tbg=6000 K

cloud

I,out

Emission vs. absorption lines

Hot surface layer

Cool surface layer

1
Flux

Flux

obs

=I e

+ (1 e

) B (T)

Example: The Suns

photosphere
What do we learn?
Temperature of the
gas goes down
toward the suns
surface!

Spectrum of the sun:

Fraunhofer lines = absorption lines

Example: The Suns corona

What do we learn?
There must be very
hot plasma hovering
above the suns
surface! And this
plasma is optically
thin!

X-ray spectrum of the sun using CORONAS-F

Sylwester, Sylwester & Phillips (2010)

Suns temperature structure

Model by Fedun, Shelyag, Erdelyi (2011)

Example: Protoplanetary
Disks

What do we learn?
The surface layers
of the disk must be
warm compared to
the interior!

Spitzer Spectra of T Tauri disks by Furlan et al. (2006)

How a disk gets a warm

surface layer

Literature: Chiang & Goldreich (1997), DAlessio et al. (1998), Dullemond & Dominik (2004)

Lines of atoms and

molecules

The energies

Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

E6
E5

E4

E3

2
1

E2
E1=0

Lines of atoms and

molecules

Level degeneracies

Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

g6=2
g5=1

g4=1

g3=3

2
1

g2=1
g1=4

Lines of atoms and

molecules

Polulating the levels

Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

E6
E5

E4

E3

2
1

E2
E1=0

Lines of atoms and

molecules

Spontaneous
radiative decay
(= line emission)

Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

E6
E5

E4

E3

2
1

E2
E1=0

Einstein A-coefficient (radiative decay rate):

A4,3

[sec-1]

Lines of atoms and

molecules

Line absorption

Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

E6
E5

E4

E3

2
1

E2
E1=0

Einstein B-coefficient (radiative absorption coefficient):

B3,4

B3,4 J3,4 [sec-1]

J3,4 =

1
4

I(,)

3,4

() d d

Lines of atoms and

molecules

Stimulated emission

Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

E6
E5

E4

E3

2
1

E2
E1=0

Einstein B-coefficient (stimulated emission coefficient):

B4,3

B4,3 J3,4 [sec-1]

J3,4 =

1
4

I(,)

3,4

() d d

Lines of atoms and

molecules
Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

E6
E5

E4

E3

2
1

E2
E1=0

Einstein relations:
2

c
B4,3 = A4,3
3
2h

g3
B4,3 = B3,4
g4

Lines of atoms and

molecules

Spontaneous
radiative decay
(= line emission)
can be from any
pair of levels,
provided the transition
obeys selection rules

Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

E6
E5

E4

E3

2
1

E2
E1=0

Lines of atoms and

molecules

Collisional excitation

Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

E6
E5

E4

E3

2
1

E2
E1=0

Ecollision

Our atom
free electron

Lines of atoms and

molecules

Collisional deexcitation

Energy

Example:
a fictive 6-level atom.

6
5

E6
E5

E4

Ecollision

E3

2
1

E2
E1=0

Our atom
free electron

Example: Protoplanetary
Disks

What do we learn?

Carr & Najita 2008

Organic molecules
exist already during
the epoch of planet
formation. Models
of chemistry can tell
us why. Models of
rad. trans. tell us
Tgas and gas.

Lines of atoms and

molecules
At high enough densities the
populations of the levels
are thermalized. This is called
Local Thermodynamic
Equilibrium (LTE). For LTE
the ratio of populations of any
two levels is given by:

n i gi (E i E k ) / kT
= e
n k gk

6
5
4
3
2
1

ni is population of level nr i

How to determine the absolute populations?

Lines of atoms and

molecules
How to determine the absolute populations?
Z(T) = gie

Partition function:
(usually available on databases
on the web in tabulated form)

E i / kT

If we know total number of atoms: N

...then we can compute the nr of

atoms Ni in each level i:

N
E i / kT
Ni =
gie
Z(T)

Note: Works only under LTE conditions (high enough density)

Using multiple lines for

finding Tgas

van Kempen et al. (2010)

log(N/g)

Using excitation diagrams to

infer Tgas

What do we learn?

1000

2000
Energy [K]

Martin-Zaidi et al. 2008

3000

4000

There are clearly

two components
with different gas
temperatures: One
with T=56 K and
one with T=373 K.

Lines of atoms and

molecules
Radiative transfer in lines:

h
j =
n i Aik ik ()
4

h

(n k Bki n i Bik ) ik ()
4
extinction

dI
= j I
ds

stimulated emission

...where the line

profile function is:

( 0 ) 2
() =
exp

Beware of non-LTE!
In this lecture we focused on LTE
conditions, where the level populations can
be derived from the temperature using the
partition function.
In astrophysics we often encounter non-LTE
conditions when the densities are very low
(like in the interstellar medium). Then line
transfer becomes much more complex,
because then the populations must be
computed together with the rad. trans.

Using doppler shift to probe

motion
( 0 ) 2
() =
exp

Line profile without

doppler shift:

Line profile with

doppler shift:

r r 2

1
( 0 0 u /c)

(,) =
exp

Example: Position-velocity
diagrams
Motion of neutral hydrogen gas in the Milky Way

Kalberla et al. 2008

Example: Velocity channel

maps
Viewing the Omega Nebula
(M17) at different velocity channels

From: Alyssa Goodman (CfA Harvard), the COMPLETE survey

Continuum emission/extinction by
dust
Atoms in dust grains do not produce lines.
They produce continuum + broad features.
CO ice
CO ice

CO ice+gas
CO gas+ice

CO gas
solid CO2

CO gas

From lecture
Ewine van
Dishoeck

Dust opacities. Example:

Opacity of amorphous silicate silicate

Example: B68 molecular

cloud

Credit: European Southern Observatory

Example: Thermal dust

emission M51
Made with the
Herschel Space
Telescope:

Using radiative transfer models

to interpret observational data

Forward modeling: Model

fitting
?
I,out

I,in

van Kempen et al. (2010)

Radiative transfer program

Model
cloud

Forward modeling: Model

fitting
?
I,out

I,in

van Kempen et al. (2010)

Radiative transfer program

Model
cloud

Forward modeling: Model

fitting
?
I,out

I,in

van Kempen et al. (2010)

Got it!
Radiative transfer program
Model
cloud

Automated fitting
First we need a goodness of fit indicator
Error estimate:
2

obs
model 2
(y

y
)
2
i
i
=
2

i
i=1

...where i is the weight (usually taken to be the uncertainty

in the observation, but can also denote the unimportance
of this measuring value
compared to others).

Least squares fitting

Automated fitting
Then we need a procedure to scan model-parameter space:
Brute force method

2-contours

Pontoppidan et al. 2007

Automated fitting
Then we need a procedure to scan model-parameter space:
Brute force method

2-contours

Best fit

But strong
degeneracy

Pontoppidan et al. 2007

Automated fitting
Then we need a procedure to scan model-parameter space:

For large parameter spaces, better use one of these:

Simulated annealing
Amoeba
MCMC
Genetic algorithms
...

Some useful radiative transfer

codes...
Optical/UV of the interstellar medium:
CLOUDY http://www.nublado.org/
Meudon PDR code http://pdr.obspm.fr/PDRcode.html
MOCASSIN http://www.usm.uni-muenchen.de/people/ercolano/

Dust emission, absorption, scattering:

DUSTY http://www.pa.uky.edu/~moshe/dusty/
MC3D http://www.astrophysik.uni-kiel.de/~star/Classes/MC3D.html
RADMC-3D http://www.ita.uniheidelberg.de/~dullemond/software/radmc-3d/

Some useful radiative transfer

codes...
Infrared and submillimeter lines:
RADEX http://www.sron.rug.nl/~vdtak/radex/radex.php
RATRAN http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~michiel/ratran/
SIMLINE http://hera.ph1.uni-koeln.de/~ossk/Myself/simline.html

Stellar atmosphere codes:

TLUSTY http://nova.astro.umd.edu/
PHOENIX http://www.hs.unihamburg.de/EN/For/ThA/phoenix/index.html

More codes on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_photosphere