Radiative Transfer in Special Relativity: Covariance

TL;DR

This paper provides a clear, pedagogical introduction to radiative transfer in special relativity, emphasizing covariance and relativistic effects, aimed at undergraduate physics and astronomy students.

Contribution

It offers a detailed, explicit derivation of the covariant radiative transfer equation and discusses relativistic effects often missing in classical literature.

Findings

Derivation of the covariant radiative transfer equation

Analysis of relativistic effects on radiative transfer

Clarification of interactions between radiation and matter in relativistic context

Abstract

The purpose is to introduce in a clear and direct way the students of undergraduate courses in physics and/or astronomy to the subject of radiative transfer. A pedagogical revision is made in order to obtain the radiative transfer equation, its restrictions and the different types of interactions present between the radiation and the matter. Because in the classical literature about radiative transfer the covariance is not fully developed, we show in an explicit manner detail calculations and then we discuss the relativistic effects.