A Mathematical Description of the IDSA for Supernova Neutrino transport, its discretization and a comparison with a finite volume scheme for Boltzmann's Equation

In this paper we give an introduction to the Boltzmann equation for neutrino transport used in core collapse supernova models as well as a detailed mathematical description of the \emph{Isotropic Diffusion Source Approximation} (IDSA). Furthermore, we present a numerical treatment of a reduced Boltzmann model problem based on time splitting and finite volumes and revise the discretization of the IDSA for this problem. Discretization error studies carried out on the reduced Boltzmann model problem and on the IDSA show that the errors are of order one in both cases. By a numerical example, a detailed comparison of the reduced model and the IDSA is carried out and interpreted. For this example the IDSA modeling error with respect to the reduced Boltzmann model is numerically determined and localized.