A PARTICULAR SOLUTION FOR POLARIZATION CALCULATIONS IN RADIATIVE-TRANSFER

A pair of biorthogonality relations, relevant to some elements of a ge neralized spherical-harmonics solution of the homogeneous equation of transfer, is derived and used, along with linear-algebra techniques, t o develop a particular solution appropriate to the scattering of polar ized light. The considered radiative-transfer model is based on a gene ral treatment of polarization effects in a plane-parallel medium that contains a source that varies with position and both direction variabl es.