Eigenvalues of the Anisotropic Transport Equation in a Slab

Abstract

The critical eigenvalues of the transport equation play an important role in the description of the dynamics of transport problems both in nuclear physics as well as in radiative transport theory. This article treats the problem of calculating numerically the critical spectrum of the transport equation with semireflecting boundary conditions. The eigenvalue problem is solved using spectral methods and numerical results are presented. The scattering kernel is considered to be one of three types, namely, isotropic, linearly anisotropic, or Rayleigh scattering, even although more general kernels could be considered.