Tuesday, July 25, 2017

astrophysics - Relationships between optical depth, tau, and probability of being scattered


The optical depth is given by many as:


τ=neσcsL

Where ne is the number density of the medium, σcs is the scattering cross section and L is the linear extent of the medium.


I was wondering, what is the relationship between the optial depth and the probability of scattering? I can't seem to find it amongst online lecture notes and other sources. A really concise answer would be appeciated.




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