Emission-Line Eclipse Mapping of Velocity Fields in Dwarf-Nova Accretion Disk

Abstract

We propose a new method, emission-line eclipse mapping, to map the velocity fields of an accretion disk in position space. Quiescent dwarf novae usually exhibit double-peaked emission line profiles because of disk rotation. Since a part of the disk having a different line-of-sight velocity is successively obscured by a companion in eclipsing systems, they show time-varying line profiles. We calculate time changes of the emission line profiles, assuming Keplerian rotation fields (v_\phi\propto r^(-1/2) with r being the distance from the disk center) and the emissivity distribution of j \propto r^(-3/2). We, then, apply the usual eclipse mapping technique to the light curves at each of 12-24 wavelengths across the line center to map the region with the same line-of-sight velocity. The reconstructed images typically exhibit a `two-eye' pattern for high line-of-sight velocities and we can recover the relation, v_\phi \propto d^(-1/2), on the assumption of the axisymmetric disk, where d is the separation between the two `eyes'. We will be able to probe the Keplerian rotation law, the most fundamental assumption adopted in many disk models, by high-speed spectroscopic observations with 8-m class telescopes.