Abstract:
This thesis aims to develop methods to solve radiative transfer (RT) problems in several
astrophysical contexts. A major part of the thesis is devoted to develop an understanding
of the effects of multi- dimensional (multi-D) RT on the polarized line formation. We
consider partial frequency redistribution (PRD) of line radiation in the presence/absence
of external magnetic fields. The thesis consists of three parts. In the first part we develop
modern numerical methods to solve the line RT equation in one-dimensional (1D) planar
and spherical media. In the second part, we formulate and solve the problem of polarized
line RT equation in multi-D media. In the third part we focus our attention on realistic
modeling of the spectro-polarimetric observations of the linearly polarized spectrum of the
Sun (the well known second solar spectrum).
