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M.M. Montgomery (UCF)
We use theory and numerical simulations, as constrained by observations, to better understand nodal and apsidal superhumps in Cataclysmic Variable (CV) systems. We verify the postulated tilted accretion disk theory by generating artificial light curves and associated Fourier transforms containing nodal and/or apsidal superhumps from numerical simulations of tilted accretion disks. Nodal superhumps are numerically and kinematically described by a secondary tidally inducing a retrograde precession in a disk tilted out of the orbital plane ~3-10 degrees. We find no mass ratio limit on nodal precession in our numerical simulations. The ratio of our analytical expressions and numerical simulations of apsidal-to-nodal precessions is nearly 2:1, the same ratio found in observations and in the lunisolar precessional theory. We find that primary mass is the main descriminator in the apsidal and nodal precessions. We consider main sequence secondaries only.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: montgomery@physics.ucf.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.