Towards the next-generation of non-equilibrium solar radiative transfer

Radiative transfer is a cornerstone of astrophysics, providing a key tool to model and interpret observations of distant structures, for which in situ measurements are typically impossible. Whilst simplifying approximations are often possible, there are instances where the observed radiation forms in optically thick plasma outside of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) conditions, necessitating detailed and computationally costly treatments of atomic spectral lines across regions connected by a global radiation field.

However, astronomy is not the only field that interests itself with the solution of the radiative transfer equation and the propagation of light: the field of computer graphics has long sought efficient approximations to this problem. In this talk, I will present outstanding problems that necessitate the development of new radiative transfer tools, along with techniques brought from recent advances in the field of computer graphics applied in our new GPU-accelerated multidimensional non-LTE radiative transfer tool.