Convergence of filtered spherical harmonic equations for radiation transport (Q311099)

Convergence properties of the filtered spherical harmonic (FP\(_N\)) equations described in [\textit{D. Radice} et al., J. Comput. Phys. 242, 648--669 (2013; Zbl 1310.85002)] are analyzed. These equations are a modification of the spherical harmonics (P\(_N\)) system (see [\textit{K. M. Case} and \textit{P. F. Zweifel}, Linear transport theory. Reading, Mass.-Palo Alto-London-Don Mills, Ont.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company (1967; Zbl 0162.58903)]), which is derived via a global spectral approximation in angle of the solution to the radiation transport equation \[ \partial_t\psi(t,x,\Omega)+\Omega\cdot\nabla_x\psi(t,x,\Omega)+\sigma_a(x)\psi(t,x,\Omega)+(\mathcal Q\psi)(t,x,\Omega)=S(t,x,\Omega). \] Here \(\psi(0,x,\Omega)=\psi_0(x,\Omega)\) is the initial-value condition, \(\sigma_a\geq0\) is the absorption cross-section, the source \(S\geq0\) is given and the unknown \(\psi(t,x,\Omega)\) is the density of particles, with respect to the measure \(d\Omega dx\), that at time \(t\in\mathbb R\) are located at position \(x\in\mathbb R^3\) and moving in the direction \(\Omega\in\mathbb S^2\). The scattering operator \(\mathcal Q\) describes the change in particle direction due to a collision with a fixed background medium \[ (\mathcal Q\psi)(t,x,\Omega)=\sigma_s(x)\Big(\psi(t,x,\Omega)-\int_{\mathbb S^2}g(t,\Omega\cdot\Omega')\psi(t,x,\Omega')\,d\Omega'\Big). \] In Section 3 it is shown how the global \(L^2\) convergence rate depends on the smoothness of the solution and the order of the filter. The main convergence results are proved in Theorem 3.3 and Theorem 3.4. In Section 4 the numerical rate of convergence for several test cases in two spatial dimensions is computed. Numerical calculations are performed using a modification of the code StaRMAP.