ABSTRACT
The theory of radiative transfer evolved almost a century ago in the form of a transport equation for brightness, mainly owing to the efforts of Khvolson (1890) and Schuster (1905). By the 40s and 50s of this century studies of the transport equation had become an independent discipline of mathematical physics, which brought about new efficient techniques of solving integral and integro-differential equations. At present, application areas of transfer equations are many and diverse. These equations describe the scattering of light and radio waves in astrophysics, applied optics, biophysics, geophysics, and plasma physics. An important field is the transfer theory for neutrons. The concepts of transfer theory are widely used also in acoustics and have become popular in oceanology, seismology and other natural sciences.
