Unconventional application of the two-flux approximation for the calculation of the Ambartsumyan-Chandrasekhar function and the angular spectrum of the backward-scattered radiation for a semi-infinite isotropically scattering medium

It is commonly accepted that the Schwarzschild-Schuster two-flux approximation (1905, 1914) can be employed only for the calculation of the energy characteristics of the radiation field (energy density and energy flux density) and cannot be used to characterize the angular distribution of radiation field. However, such an inference is not valid. In several cases, one can calculate the radiation intensity inside matter and the reflected radiation with the aid of this simplest approximation in the transport theory. In this work, we use the results of the simplest one-parameter variant of the two-flux approximation to calculate the angular distribution (reflection function) of the radiation reflected by a semi-infinite isotropically scattering dissipative medium when a relatively broad beam is incident on the medium at an arbitrary angle relative to the surface. We do not employ the invariance principle and demonstrate that the reflection function exhibits the multiplicative property. It can be represented as a product of three functions: the reflection function corresponding to the single scattering and two identical h functions, which have the same physical meaning as the Ambartsumyan-Chandrasekhar function (H) has. This circumstance allows a relatively easy derivation of simple analytical expressions for the H function, total reflectance, and reflection function. We can easily determine the relative contribution of the true single scattering in the photon backscattering at an arbitrary probability of photon survival Λ. We compare all of the parameters of the backscattered radiation with the data resulting from the calculations using the exact theory of Ambartsumyan, Chandrasekhar, et al., which was developed decades after the two-flux approximation. Thus, we avoid the application of fine mathematical methods (the Wiener-Hopf method, the Case method of singular functions, etc.) and obtain simple analytical expressions for the parameters of the scattered radiation. Note that the simplicity of the expressions is supplemented with unexpectedly high accuracy. The results demonstrate the unknown possibilities offered by the two-flux approximation, which is the simplest approximate method to solve the equations of transport theory. We assume that the method can be employed in the calculations of the angular characteristics of the reflected radiation for media whose single scattering is described using complicated (in comparison with isotropic) laws.