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The Emergence Of Negative Superhumps In Cataclysmic Variables: Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Simulations, David M. Thomas, Matt A. Wood

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Negative superhumps are believed to arise in cataclysmic variable systems when the accretion disk is tilted with respect to the orbital plane. Slow retrograde precession of the line-of-nodes results in a signal—the negative superhump—with a period slightly less than the orbital period. Previous studies have shown that tilted disks exhibit negative superhumps, but a consensus on how a disk initially tilts has not been reached. Analytical work by Lai (1999, ApJ, 524, 1030) suggests that a magnetic field on the primary can lead to a tilt instability in a disk when the dipole moment is offset in angle from the …