Front Propagation from Radiative Sources

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel, generic approach to modeling front propagation around radiative sources, applicable to phenomena like ionisation fronts during the Epoch of Reionisation, offering richer insights than existing methods.

Contribution

A new modeling framework for front propagation around radiative sources, applicable across various scientific fields and providing enhanced informational outputs.

Findings

Consistent with existing equations for ionisation fronts.

Provides richer sources of information about front dynamics.

Applicable to diverse phenomena involving phase or state transitions.

Abstract

Fronts are regions of transition from one state to another in a medium. They are present in many areas of science and applied mathematics, and modelling them and their evolution is often an effective way of treating the underlying phenomena responsible for them. In this paper, we propose a new approach to modelling front propagation, which characterises the evolution of structures surrounding radiative sources. This approach is generic and has a wide range of applications, particularly when dealing with the propagation of phase or state transitions in media surrounding radiation emitting objects. As an illustration, we show an application in modelling the propagation of ionisation fronts around early stars during the cosmological Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) and show that the results are consistent with those of existing equations but provide much richer sources of information.