Predictions of the disc instability model

Abstract

Confronting the predictions of numerical calculations with observations is an important tool to progress with our understanding of the mechanism triggering the outbursts of dwarf novae and soft X-ray transients. Simultaneous multi-wavelength observations are of particular importance in this process as they contain information about the chronology of the outbursts as e.g. the famous UV-delay observed in dwarf novae. We review key-predictions of the disc instability model (DIM) and confront them with the corresponding observations.

6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in The astrophysics of cataclysmic variables and related objects, ASP Conf. Ser., eds. J.-M. Hameury and J.-P. Lasota