Discrete ordinates method

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In the theory of radiative transfer, of either thermal^[1] or neutron^[2] radiation, a position and direction-dependent intensity function is usually sought for the description of the radiation field. The intensity field can in principle be solved from the integrodifferential radiative transfer equation (RTE), but an exact solution is usually impossible and even in the case of geometrically simple systems can contain unusual special functions such as the Chandrasekhar's H-function and Chandrasekhar's X- and Y-functions.^[3] The method of discrete ordinates, or the S_n method, is one way to approximately solve the RTE by discretizing both the xyz-domain and the angular variables that specify the direction of radiation. The methods were developed by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar when he was working on radiative transfer.