Related papers: Accretion Disks: Limit Cycles and Instabilities
Previous theoretical studies indicate that the inner disk in dwarf novae evaporates into a high-temperature, optically thin, and geometrically thick accretion flow during quiescence, with the inner edge moving toward the white dwarf at the…
The disk instability model attributes the outbursts of dwarf novae to a thermal-viscous instability of their accretion disk, an instability to which nova-like stars are not subject. We aim to test the fundamental prediction of the disk…
In many cases accretion proceeds from disks onto planets, stars, white dwarfs, and neutron stars via a boundary layer, a region of intense shear where gas transitions from a near-Keplerian speed to that of the surface. These regions are…
The disc instability model (DIM) has been very successful in explaining the dwarf nova outbursts observed in cataclysmic variables. When, as in intermediate polars (IP), the accreting white dwarf is magnetized, the disc is truncated at the…
I review models trying to explain dwarf-nova outbursts and soft X-ray transients. The disc-instability model for dwarf-novae is still in its preliminary state of development: its predictions depend very strongly on the unknown viscosity…
In the framework of the dwarf nova thermal-viscous disc instability model, we investigate the combined effects on the predicted dwarf nova lightcurves of irradiating the accretion disc and the secondary star and of evaporating the inner…
Dwarf nova outbursts result from enhanced mass transport through the accretion disc of a cataclysmic variable system. We assess the question of whether these outbursts are caused by an enhanced mass transfer from the late-type main sequence…
Dwarf novae (DNe) and low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) show eruptions that are thought to be due to a thermal-viscous instability in their accretion disk. These eruptions provide constraints on angular momentum transport mechanisms. We…
The recurrent outbursts that characterise low-mass binary systems reflect thermal state changes in their associated accretion discs. The observed outbursts are connected to the strong variation in disc opacity as hydrogen ionises near 5000…
Accretion disc outbursts are re-occurring events observed in various astrophysical systems, including X-ray binaries and cataclysmic variables. These outbursts are characterized by a sudden increase in luminosity due to various…
The mechanism of angular momentum transport in accretion discs has long been debated. Although the magnetorotational instability appears to be a promising process, poorly ionized regions of accretion discs may not undergo this instability.…
Understanding the mechanism that drives accretion has been the primary challenge in accretion disk theory. Turbulence provides a natural means of dissipation and the removal of angular momentum, but firmly establishing its presence in disks…
We study the stability of disc accretion in the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi. We construct a one-dimensional time-dependent model of the binary-disc system, which includes viscous heating and radiative cooling and a self-consistent treatment…
The physical modeling of the accretion disk boundary layer, the region where the disk meets the surface of the accreting star, usually relies on the assumption that angular momentum transport is opposite to the radial angular frequency…
Context. Although the disc instability model is widely accepted as the explanation for dwarf nova outbursts, it is still necessary to confront its predictions to observations because much of the constraints on angular momentum transport in…
We review mechanisms for the transport of angular momentum in accretion disks that are low mass, in the sense that the gravitational forces produced by the material in these disks has a negligible effect on disk dynamics. There is no…
This is an introduction to models of accretion discs around black holes. After a presentation of the non-relativistic equations describing the structure and evolution of geometrically thin accretion discs we discuss their steady-state…
The stratification of entropy and the stratification of angular momentum are closely analogous. Of particular interest is the behavior of disks in which angular momentum transport is controlled by convection, and heat transport by dynamical…
We present computations for the accretion disk limit cycle model in an attempt to explain the empirical relation for dwarf nova outbursts between the peak visual absolute magnitude and orbital period found by Warner. For longer period…
We numerically study the tidal instability of accretion discs in close binary systems using a two-dimensional SPH code. We find that the precession rate of tidally unstable, eccentric discs does not only depend upon the binary mass ratio q.…