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M. Palotti, S. D. Doty (Denison University)
Motivated by regions of star formation such as dark globules and molecular clouds, we have constructed a series of radiation transport models to critically evaluate the use of semianalytic methods of analysis in determining the properties of predominantly externally heated sources. By using the results of the models as simulated observations, we apply semianalytic to these results in order to infer source properties. A comparison of the inferred properties with those used in constructing the model gives a measure of the reliability of the method applied. Specifically, we have studied the following areas: 1) determination of dust masses; 2) estimation of the dust temperature; 3) determination of the dust opacity function; 4) determination of the radial density distribution; and 5) determination of the presence of an internal heat source.