On the origin of tilted disks and negative superhumps

Abstract

The origin of tilted disks in cataclysmic variables is explained in terms of a model involving the stream-disk interactions. Tilted, precessing disk causes periodically variable asymmetry in the irradiation of the two hemispheres of the secondary component, resulting in variable vertical component of the velocity of the stream. The following stream-disk interactions provide additional vertical acceleration to disk elements needed to produce and maintain disk tilt. Predictions based on this model compare favorably with observations.