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Comparison of Polarized Radiative Transfer Codes Used by the EHT Collaboration

Prather, Ben S; Dexter, Jason; Moscibrodzka, Monika; Pu, Hung-Yi; Bronzwaer, Thomas; Davelaar, Jordy; Younsi, Ziri; ... Zhao, Shan-Shan; + view all (2023) Comparison of Polarized Radiative Transfer Codes Used by the EHT Collaboration. The Astrophysical Journal , 950 (1) , Article 35. 10.3847/1538-4357/acc586. Green open access

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Abstract

Interpretation of resolved polarized images of black holes by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) requires predictions of the polarized emission observable by an Earth-based instrument for a particular model of the black hole accretion system. Such predictions are generated by general relativistic radiative transfer (GRRT) codes, which integrate the equations of polarized radiative transfer in curved spacetime. A selection of ray-tracing GRRT codes used within the EHT Collaboration is evaluated for accuracy and consistency in producing a selection of test images, demonstrating that the various methods and implementations of radiative transfer calculations are highly consistent. When imaging an analytic accretion model, we find that all codes produce images similar within a pixel-wise normalized mean squared error (NMSE) of 0.012 in the worst case. When imaging a snapshot from a cell-based magnetohydrodynamic simulation, we find all test images to be similar within NMSEs of 0.02, 0.04, 0.04, and 0.12 in Stokes I, Q, U, and V, respectively. We additionally find the values of several image metrics relevant to published EHT results to be in agreement to much better precision than measurement uncertainties.

Type: Article
Title: Comparison of Polarized Radiative Transfer Codes Used by the EHT Collaboration
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/acc586
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acc586
Language: English
Additional information: Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10172545
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