Tracing the water snowline in low-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) is important because dust grain growth is promoted and the chemical composition varies at the water snowline, which influences planet formation and its properties. In protostellar envelopes, the water snowline can be estimated as a function of luminosity using a relation derived from radiative transfer models, and these predictions are consistent with observations. However, accurately estimating the water snowline in protoplanetary disks requires new relations that account for the disk structure. We present the relations between luminosity and water snowline using the dust continuum radiative transfer models with various density structures. We adopt two-dimensional density structures for an envelope-only model (Model E), an envelope+disk+cavity model (Model E+D), and a protoplanetary disk model (Model PPD). The relations between the water snowline, where Tdust = 100 K, and the total luminosity, ranging 0.1–1,000 L⊙, are well fitted by a power-law relation, Rsnow = a × (L/L⊙)p au. The factor a decreases with increasing disk density, while the power index p has values around 0.5 in all models. As the disk becomes denser, the water snowline forms at smaller radii even at the same luminosity, since dense dust hinders photon propagation. We also explore the effect of viscous heating on the water snowline. In Model PPD with viscous heating, the water snowline shifts outward by a few au up to 15 au, increasing the factor a and decreasing the power index p. In Model E+D with lower disk mass, the effect of viscous heating is negligible, indicating that the disk mass controls the effect. The discrepancy between our models and direct observations provides insights into the recent outburst event and the presence of a disk structure in low-mass YSOs.

We have revisited Monte Carlo radiative transfer calculations for clumpy molecular clouds. Instead of introducing a three-dimensional geometry to implement clumpy structure, we have made use of its stochastic properties in a one-dimensional geometry. Taking into account the reduction of spontaneous emission and optical depth due to clumpiness, we have derived the excitation conditions of clumpy clouds and compared them with those of three-dimensional calculations. We found that the proposed approach reproduces the excitation conditions in a way compatible to those from three-dimensional models, and reveals the dependencies of the excitation conditions on the size of clumps. When bulk motions are involved, the applicability of the approach is rather vague, but the one-dimensional approach can be an excellent proxy for more rigorous three-dimensional calculations.

Emission features formed through Raman scattering with atomic hydrogen provide unique and crucial information to probe the distribution and kinematics of a thick neutral region illuminated by a strong far-ultraviolet radiation source. We introduce a new 3-dimensional Monte-Carlo code in order to describe the radiative transfer of line photons that are subject to Raman and Rayleigh scattering with atomic hydrogen. In our Sejong Radiative Transfer through Raman and Rayleigh Scattering (STaRS) code, the position, direction, wavelength, and polarization of each photon is traced until escape. The thick neutral scattering region is divided into multiple cells with each cell being characterized by its velocity and density, which ensures exibility of the code in analyzing Raman-scattered features formed in a neutral region with complicated kinematics and density distribution. To test the code, we revisit the formation of Balmer wings through Raman scattering of the far-UV continuum near Lyβ and Lyγ in a static neutral region. An additional check is made to investigate Raman scattering of Ovi in an expanding neutral medium. We find a good agreement of our results with previous works, demonstrating the capability of dealing with radiative transfer modeling that can be applied to spectropolarimetric imaging observations of various objects including symbiotic stars, young planetary nebulae, and active galactic nuclei.