Finite-difference approximations and superconvergence for the discrete-ordinate equations in slab geometry

A unified framework is developed for calculating the order of the error for a class of finite-difference approximations to the monoenergetic linear transport equation in slab geometry. In particular, the global discretization errors for the step characteristic, diamond, and linear discontinuous methods are shown to be of order two, while those for the linear moments and linear characteristic methods are of order three, and that for the quadratic method is of order four. A superconvergence result is obtained for the three linear methods, in the sense that the cell-averaged flux approximations are shown to converge at one order higher than the global errors