An improved version of the Implicit Integral Method to solving radiative transfer problems

Abstract: Radiative transfer (RT) problems in which the source function includes a scattering-like integral are typical two-points boundary problems. Their solution via differential equations implies to make hypotheses on the solution itself, namely the specific intensity I(tau;n) of the radiation field. On the contrary, integral methods require to make hypotheses on the source function S(tau). It looks of course more reasonable to make hypotheses on the latter because one can expect that the run of S(tau) with depth be smoother than that of I(tau;n). In previous works we assumed a piece-wise parabolic approximation for the source function, which warrants the continuity of S(tau) and its first derivative at each depth point. Here we impose the continuity of the second derivative S"(tau). In other words, we adopt a cubic spline representation to the source function, which highly stabilize the numerical processes.