Homotopy analysis method for neutron diffusion calculations

The Homotopy Analysis Method (HAM), proposed in 1992 by Shi Jun Liao and has been developed since then, is based on a fundamental concept in differential geometry and topology, the homotopy. It has proved useful for problems involving algebraic, linear/non-linear, ordinary/partial differential and differential-integral equations being an analytic, recursive method that provides a series sum solution. It has the advantage of offering a certain freedom for the choice of its arguments such as the initial guess, the auxiliary linear operator and the convergence control parameter, and it allows us to effectively control the rate and region of convergence of the series solution. HAM is applied for the fixed source neutron diffusion equation in this work, which is a part of our research motivated by the question of whether methods for solving the neutron diffusion equation that yield straightforward expressions but able to provide a solution of reasonable accuracy exist such that we could avoid analytic methods that are widely used but either fail to solve the problem or provide solutions through many intricate expressions that are likely to contain mistakes or numerical methods that require powerful computational resources and advanced programming skills due to their very nature or intricate mathematical fundamentals. Fourier basis are employed for expressing the initial guess due to the structure of the problem and its boundary conditions. We present the results in comparison with other widely used methods of Adomian Decomposition and Variable Separation.