A possible manifestation of spiral shock waves in the accretion disks of cataclysmic variables

Details A possible manifestation of spiral shock waves in the accretion disks of cataclysmic variables A possible manifestation of spiral shock waves in the accretion disks of cataclysmic variables

Sep 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001arep...45..676b&link_type=abstract

Astronomy Reports, vol. 45, Issue 9, p.676-685

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

5

Scientific paper

We present the results of three-dimensional numerical simulations of flow structures in binary systems with spiral shock waves. Variations of the mass-transfer rate perturb the equilibrium state of the accretion disk; consequently, a condensation (blob) behind the shock breaks away from the shock front and moves through the disk with variable speed. Our computations indicate that the blob is a long-lived formation, whose mean parameters do not vary substantially on timescales of several tens of orbital periods of the system. The presence of the spiral shocks maintains the compact blob in the disk: it prevents the blob from spreading due to the differential motion of matter in the disk, and dissipative spreading on this timescale is negligible. A number of cataclysmic variables display periodic or quasi-periodic photometric variations in their light curves with characteristic periods ˜0.1 0.2P orb, where P orb is the orbital period. The blobs formed in systems with spiral shock waves are examined as a possible origin for these variations. The qualitative (and, in part, quantitative) agreement between our computations and observations of IP Peg and EX Dra provides evidence for the efficacy of the proposed model.

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