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The Origin of Warped, Precessing Accretion Disks in X-ray Binaries The radiation-driven warping instability discovered by Pringle holds considerable promise as the mechanism responsible for producing warped, precessing accretion disks in X-ray binaries. This instability is an inherently global mode of the disk, thereby avoiding the difficulties with earlier models for the precession. Here we follow up on earlier work to study the linear behavior of the instability in the specific context of a binary system. We treat the influence of the companion as an orbit-averaged quadrupole torque on the disk. The presence of this external torque allows the existence of solutions in which the direction of precession of the warp is retrograde with respect to disk rotation, in addition to the prograde solutions that exist in the absence of external torques.
Document ID
19980058823
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
doi:10.1086/311058
Authors
Maloney, Philip R. (Colorado Univ. Boulder, CO United States)
Begelman, Mitchell C. (Colorado Univ. Boulder, CO United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1997
Publication Information
Publication: Astrophysical Journal
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Volume: 491
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Report/Patent Number
NASA/CR-97-207876
NAS 1.26:207876
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF AST-95-29175
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG5-4061
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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