THE LIBERATION OF GRAVITATIONAL BINDING ENERGY TO PRODUCE THE PHOTONS THAT WE OBSERVE FROM ACCRETING SYSTEMS REMAINS A PROBLEM OF FUNDAMENTAL IMPORTANCE IN THEORETICAL ASTROPHYSICS. THIS PROBLEM IS NOW BECOMING TRACTABLE THANKS TO MODERN COMPUTER CODES WHICH CAN SIMULATE BOTH THE COMPLEX DYNAMICS OF MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICAL (MHD) TURBULENCE AS WELL AS THE THERMODYNAMICS OF RADIATIVE COOLING. ACCRETION DISKS AROUND WHITE DWARFS IN BINARY SYSTEMS HAVE AS YET RECEIVED LITTLE ATTENTION FROM SUCH CODES AND YET IT IS THESE SYSTEMS WHICH PROVIDE THE STRONGEST OBSERVATIONAL CONSTRAINTS OF IONIZED ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTING ACCRETION DISKS. MUCH IS KNOWN ABOUT HOW SUCH DISKS ARE FUELED BY ROCHE LOBE OVERFLOW OF THE COMPANION STAR SPECTROSCOPY REVEALS THE COMPOSITION AND PHYSICAL STATE OF THE ACCRETING MATTER AND ECLIPSE MAPPING OF SOME SYSTEMS HAS EVEN PROVIDED INFORMATION ON THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF THE ACCRETION DISK. WHITE DWARF ACCRETION DISKS EXHIBIT BOTH APERIODIC AND PERIODIC VARIABILITY WITH PROPERTIES THAT ARE SHARED BY A BROAD RANGE OF ACCRETING SOURCES. THERMAL INSTABILITIES DRIVEN BY IONIZATION TRANSITIONS ALSO EXIST AND THE RESULTING OUTBURSTS PROVIDE THE STRONGEST OBSERVATIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON MHD TURBULENT STRESSES. ANOTHER DISTINCT ADVANTAGE OF WHITE DWARF ACCRETION DISKS IS THAT THEY HAVE THE SMALLEST DYNAMIC RANGE OF ANY ACCRETION DISK SYSTEM IN ALL OF ASTROPHYSICS: THE FUELING RADIUS IS ONLY A FACTOR OF TENS TO HUNDREDS TIMES LARGER THAN THE WHITE DWARF RADIUS ITSELF. THIS MAKES THEM THE MOST COMPUTATIONALLY TRACTABLE SYSTEMS FOR SIMULATING THE ENTIRE GLOBAL STRUCTURE OF THE DISK. WE THEREFORE PROPOSE TO USE THE ATHENA++ CODE TO CONDUCT GLOBAL RADIATION MHD SIMULATIONS OF THE MOST COMPACT ACCRETING WHITE DWARF BINARIES IN NATURE: THE AM CVN SYSTEMS. THESE CONSIST OF A WHITE DWARF BEING FED BY A HELIUM DONOR STAR. THESE SYSTEMS EXHIBIT A RICH PHENOMENOLOGY OF VARIABILITY THAT IS SHARED BY OTHER SOURCES INCLUDING RAPID PERIODIC AND APERIODIC VARIABILITY SUPERHUMPS NORMAL OUTBURSTS AND SUPEROUTBURSTS. THE FUELING RADIUS IN THESE SYSTEMS CAN BE AS SMALL AS 20 OR SO WHITE DWARF RADII. OUR SIMULATIONS WILL BE THE FIRST OF ANY ACCRETION DISK IN NATURE THAT INCORPORATES THE ENTIRE DISK FROM THE FUELING RADIUS TO THE WHITE DWARF BOUNDARY LAYER AND WHICH INCLUDES SELF-CONSISTENT ANGULAR MOMENTUM TRANSPORT BY MHD TURBULENCE AND (POSSIBLY) SPIRAL WAVES. THEY WILL ALSO INCLUDE (GREY) RADIATION TRANSPORT WITHIN THE SIMULATION ITSELF SO THAT SELF-CONSISTENT LIGHT CURVES CAN BE AUTOMATICALLY PRODUCED. WE WILL BEGIN BY SIMULATING A COMPACT PERSISTENT (NON-OUTBURSTING) SYSTEM: KIC 004547333 WHICH HAS THREE YEARS OF HIGH CADENCE KEPLER DATA AND WHICH EXHIBITS REMARKABLY RICH VARIABILITY. WITH REASONABLE AMOUNTS OF COMPUTER TIME WE CAN REACH A GLOBAL THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM FOR THE ENTIRE DISK ALTHOUGH ACHIEVING GLOBAL INFLOW EQUILIBRIUM MIGHT STILL BE CHALLENGING. A PRELIMINARY SIMULATION OF THE GROWTH OF THE ACCRETION DISK ALREADY SHOWS INTERESTING DYNAMICS AS THE DISK IS TILTING OUT OF THE ORBITAL PLANE AND GLOBALLY PRECESSING. THIS BEHAVIOR IS PROMISING TO EXPLAIN NEGATIVE SUPERHUMPS AND ALSO VARIABLE IRRADIATION OF THE SECONDARY STAR THAT MAY BE NECESSARY TO EXPLAIN SUPEROUTBURSTS. WE WILL GENERATE ORBITAL PHASE RESOLVED LIGHT CURVES FROM THIS SIMULATION ANALYZE THE CAUSES OF ITS DYNAMICAL BEHAVIOR AND POST PROCESS THE SIMULATION DATA TO GENERATE ORBITAL PHASE RESOLVED PHOTON LINE AND CONTINUUM SPECTRA. WE THEN PROPOSE TO MOVE TO LOWER ACCRETION RATES AND LONGER ORBITAL PERIODS UNTIL WE REACH THE HELIUM IONIZATION REGIME AND TRIGGER A COOLING INSTABILITY WITH THE PROPAGATION OF A COOLING FRONT. WHILE FOLLOWING AN ENTIRE OUTBURST CYCLE WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY NOT BE FEASIBLE UNDERSTANDING THE THERMODYNAMICS OF THE COOLING FRONT AND ITS INTERACTION WITH MHD TURBULENCE WILL BE CRITICAL IN ADVANCING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF OUTBURSTS IN A WIDE VARIETY OF SYSTEMS.
$278,352FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
University Of California, Santa Barbara