Deriving the inverse square law from radiative transfer equations

Luis Marti-Lopez; J. Bouza-Dominguez; Jeremy C. Hebden; Rene A. Martinez-Celorio

doi:10.1117/12.589362

21 October 2004 Deriving the inverse square law from radiative transfer equations

Luis Marti-Lopez, J. Bouza-Dominguez, Jeremy C. Hebden, Rene A. Martinez-Celorio

Proceedings Volume 5622, 5th Iberoamerican Meeting on Optics and 8th Latin American Meeting on Optics, Lasers, and Their Applications; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.589362
Event: 5th Iberoamerican Meeting on Optics and 8th Latin American Meeting on Optics, Lasers, and Their Applications, 2004, Porlamar, Venezuela

Abstract

The radiative transfer equation (RTE) is the fundamental equation of the radiative transfer theory and one of more important theoretical tools in biomedical optics for describing light propagation in biological tissues. The RTE assumes that the refractive index of the medium is constant and the ray divergence is zero. These assumptions limit its range of applicability. To eliminate this drawback three new RTE have been proposed recently. Obviously, those equations must be carefully studied and compared. With that aim we solve the standard RTE and the new radiative transfer equations for the specific case of a time-independent isotropic point source in an infinite non-absorbing non-amplifying non-scattering linear medium with constant refractive index. The solution to this problem is the well-known inverse square law of geometrical optics. We show that only one of those equations gives solutions consistent with the inverse square law for the irradiance, due to its ability to model non-negligible ray divergence near a point source.

Citation Download Citation

Luis Marti-Lopez, J. Bouza-Dominguez, Jeremy C. Hebden, and Rene A. Martinez-Celorio "Deriving the inverse square law from radiative transfer equations", Proc. SPIE 5622, 5th Iberoamerican Meeting on Optics and 8th Latin American Meeting on Optics, Lasers, and Their Applications, (21 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.589362

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