Multidimensional self-consistent radiative transfer simulations based on the Monte-Carlo method

We developed the first Monte-Carlo code for three-dimensional self-consistent continuum radiative transfer calculations. The density structure of the dust configuration (disk/envelope/molecular cloud core) can be chosen arbitrarily as well as the number, configuration, and radiation parameters of the stars inside this configuration. Binaries and multiple stellar systems (with or without disks around the stars) surrounded by a dusty environment represent typical applications for this code. Apart from the dust temperature, intensity and emergent spectral energy distribution, the polarization of light can be calculated. These polarization maps provide additional information about the geometrical structure and chemical composition of dusty media. As the first application of our code, we simulated the radiative transfer in a protostellar disk around a star (M = 1.14 M_sun ) and a fragmented molecular cloud core. The dust density and temperature distributions have been taken from hydrodynamical simulations.