Spiral shocks in the accretion disk of the dwarf nova U Geminorum

Abstract

We present a study of the observable spectral manifestations associated with spiral shocks within quiescent accretion disks and compare them with observations of the dwarf nova U Geminorum. Our results indicate that the orbital behaviour of the hydrogen emission line profile in the spectrum of U Gem can be reproduced via a simple model of the accretion disk with two symmetrically located spiral shocks with the spiral angle theta about 60 degrees. This provides for the first time convincing evidence for the existence of spiral shocks in the accretion disk of a cataclysmic variable in quiescence.