The Presence of Accretion Disks in Novae Shortly After their Outbursts

Abstract

It was believed, with little theoretical basis, that the accretion disk (AD) is destroyed in nova outbursts, and recovers only a few decades later. In my thesis I tried to find observational signature for the presence of ADs in young novae. I will discuss two cases: 1. Nova V1974 Cyg 1992 - we found permanent superhumps about 2.5 years after the nova eruption. This is a very strong evidence for the presence of the AD according to the disk - instability model. 2. Nova V1425 Aql 1995 - photometric features which characterize the Intermediate Polars systems were detected about 15 months after its discovery. It is most likely that the accretion is maintained through an AD.

2 pages, Latex, Proc. of the 13th North-American Workshop on CVs, ed. Howell S., Kuulkers E. and Woodward C. in press