Spectral and refractive effects in non-stationary radiative transfer: a theoretical study in dense media

A theoretical study of unsteady radiative heat transfer inside refractive heterogeneous participating media is presented. In the approximation of space-time geometrical optics, some new properties for propagating waves are exhibited. Physically, it is shown that the time dependency of refractive index can give rise to an effect of spectral bounce, whereas space dependency is responsible for the existence of confined trajectories for light. Then, the problem of energy transport is studied: from the shape of Clausius Invariant in unsteady processes, the transient radiative transfer equation is built and the existence of amplification effects for specific intensity is presented.