Gasdynamical Treatment of Mass Transfer in Symbiotic Stars

The results of two-dimensional, non-adiabatic gas dynamical simulations of gas flows in symbiotic stars are presented. It is shown that for a binary system with components that do not fill their Roche lobes, the structure of the gaseous stream is determined not only by the flow from the vicinity of the inner Lagrangian point, but also by the flow of matter caused by the orbital motion of the accretor through the gas of the stellar wind.The calculated gaseous flow structure consists of a set of shocks and tangential discontinuities. It is found that for all considered cases two bow shocks exist. One of the bow shocks is located in front of the accretor in the path of its orbital motion, and the second one is between the components.It is found that matter is accreted in a spiral fashion, forming an accretion disk. In steady-state simulations, a structure with shocks (both trailing and leading) in the disk was observed. Gas dynamical perturbations of the disk's outer edge by the accreting gas inflow lead to the formation of two intensive trailing shocks propagating inward. Gas dynamical perturbations of the inner part of the disk result in the occurrence of leading shocks. One possible mechanism for the generation of spiral shocks is dissipative instability. The existence of spiral shocks results in a redistribution of the angular momentum of the disk material and an increase of the accretion rate.