On the spectral analysis of iterative solutions of the discretized one-group transport equation

We analyze the Fourier-mode technique used for the spectral analysis of iterative solutions of the one-group discretized transport equation. We introduce a direct spectral analysis for the iterative solution of finite difference approximations for finite slabs composed of identical layers, providing thus a complementary analysis that is more appropriate for reactor applications. Numerical calculations for the method of characteristics and with the diamond difference approximation show the appearance of antisymmetric modes generated by the iteration on boundary data. We have also utilized the discrete Fourier transform to compute the spectrum for a periodic slab containing N identical layers and shown that at the limit N → ∞ one obtains the familiar Fourier-mode solution.