Driven-disk model for binaries with precessing donor star. Three-dimensional simulations

Abstract

We present the results of three-dimensional numerical simulations of mass transfer in semi-detached binary with a donor star whose rotation vector precesses around the orbital rotation axis of the binary in the observer's coordinate frame. The calculations support our previous model of flow without a `hot spot'. Characteristic features of the flow in this model, such as the formation of an circumbinary envelope, the absence of a `hot spot' at the edge of the accretion disk, and the formation of a shock wave along the edge of the stream, are also present in the solution for a binary with precessing donor star. The parameters of accretion disk and of the structure of the near-disk regions recur with the precessional period of the rotation axis of donor star.