Relativistic radiative transfer in relativistic plane-parallel flows: Behavior of the Eddington factor

Abstract

Abstract Relativistic radiative transfer in a relativistic plane–parallel flow which is accelerated from its base, like an accretion disk wind, is numerically examined under a fully special-relativistic treatment. We first derive relativistic formal solutions. We then iteratively solve the relativistic transfer equation for several cases such as radiative equilibrium or local thermodynamic equilibrium, and obtain specific intensities in the inertial and comoving frames, as well as moment quantities and the Eddington factor. Moment quantities are rather different in each case, but the behavior of the Eddington factor for the plane–parallel case is quite similar in all cases. The Eddington factor generally depends on the flow velocity v as well as the optical depth τ. In the case of relativistic plane–parallel flows, in an optically thin regime of τ ≲ 1, it is slightly larger than 1/3 at very slow speed, it becomes smaller than 1/3 at mildly relativistic speed, and it again increases up to unity in the highly relativistic case. At highly relativistic speed, on the other hand, it becomes larger than 1/3 even in an optically thick regime. We find the Eddington approximation is fairly good, except for τ ≲ 1 or v/c ≳ 0.9, although the moment formalism under the Eddington approximation has some defects at $v/c=1/\sqrt{3}$.