Mass transfer in tidally unstable compact binaries

The 2001 outburst of WZ Sagittae has shown the most compelling evidence yet for an enhancement of the mass-transfer rate from the donor star during a dwarf nova outburst in the form of hotspot brightening. I show that, even in this extreme case, the brightening can be attributed to tidal heating near the interaction point of an accretion stream with the expanding edge of an eccentric accretion disc, with no need at all for an increase in the mass-transfer rate. Furthermore, I confirm previous suggestions that an increase in mass-transfer rate through the stream damps any eccentricity in an accretion disc and suppresses the appearance of superhumps, in contradiction to observations. Tidal heating is expected to be most significant in systems with small mass ratios. It follows that systems like WZ Sagittae – which has a tiny mass ratio – are those most likely to show a brightening in the hotspot region.     

A complete relativistic ionized accretion disc in Cygnus X-1

The galactic black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 is observed to be in one of two X-ray spectral states: either the low/hard (low soft X-ray flux and a flat power-law tail) or high/soft (high blackbody-like soft X-ray flux and a steep power-law tail) state. The physical origin of these two states is unclear. We present here a model of an ionized accretion disc, the spectrum of which is blurred by relativistic effects, and fit it to the ASCA , Ginga and EXOSAT data of Cygnus X-1 in both spectral states. We confirm that relativistic blurring provides a much better fit to the low/hard state data and, contrary to some previous results, find the data of both states to be consistent with an ionized thin accretion disc with a reflected fraction of unity extending to the innermost stable circular orbit around the black hole. Our model is an alternative to those that, in the low/hard state, require the accretion disc to be truncated at a few tens of Schwarzschild radii, within which there is a Thomson-thin, hot accretion flow. We suggest a mechanism that may cause the changes in spectral state.     

密近双星自转的测量和研究（Ⅰ）观测和处理结果

用相同的仪器条件在美国ＫｉｔｔＰｅａｋ国立天文台观测了一批密近双星，并用两种方法得出其自转速度，最后给出了７５个双星系统的９９个子星的自转速度，其中５４个子星是首次进行自转测量。这批高精度的自转值为研究双星的同步性和检验各种同步机制提供了可靠的观测资料。