Over the last decade, Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations have become a widely-applied tool in astrophysics for the analysis of spectra, images and polarization maps of dust-shrouded objects, such as young stellar objects or active galactic nuclei. While Monte Carlo radiative transfer codes have first been used to simulate the light scattering in dusty circumstellar envelopes, the temperature structure in almost arbitrarily complex dust configurations can be derived self-consistently nowadays. This developement opened an entire new field, namely the analysis of observables tracing thermal reemission of dust, such as millimeter maps and thermal infrared / millimeter spectral energy distributions. The high flexibility of the Monte Carlo method, allowing a direct implementation of a vast variety of possible physical effects, make Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations a very powerful tool.
This review will concentrate on two aspects:First, methods to derive the self-consistent temperature structure in dust configurations using the Monte Carlo approach are discussed. Applications in the field of planet formation are discussed: The analysis of observational data, allowing to conclude grain growth as the first stage of planet formation in the circumstellar disk of the Butterfly star is presented as well as a study concerning the observability of giant planets in circumstellar disks.
The second aspect of this talk is the dicussion of the simulation of continuum polarization, caused by light scattering. Both, the case of scattering by spherical as well as by spheroidal grains will be discussed and illustrated by examples.
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