edited by J Craig Wheeler (Univ. Texas)

Accretion disks in compact stellar systems containing white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes are the principal laboratory for understanding the role of accretion disks in a wide variety of environments from proto-stars to quasars. Recent work on disk instabilities and dynamics has given a new theoretical framework with which to study accretion disks. Modeling of time-dependent phenomena provides new insight into the causes and interpretation of photometric and spectroscopic variability and new constraints on the fundamental physical problem — the origin of viscosity in accretion disks. This book contains expert reviews on the nature of limit cycle thermal instabilities and a variety of closely related topics from the theory of angular momentum transport to eclipse mapping of the disk structure. The result is a comprehensive contemporary survey of the structure and evolution of accretion disks in compact binary systems.

• Introduction to Accretion Disk Research (J Wood)
• The Limit Cycle Instability in Dwarf Nova Accretion Disks (J K Cannizzo)
• Angular Momentum Transport in Low Mass Accretion Disks (E T Vishniac & P H Diamond)
• The Emission Lines from Accretion Disks in Cataclysmic Variable Stars (E L Robinson et al.)
• Eclipse Mapping of Accretion Disks: The First Decade (K Horne)
• Atmospheres of Accretion Disks and the Emerging Spectra (G Shaviv & R Wehrse)
• Disks and Magnetospheres (A R King & J P Lasota)
• Mass Loss and the Boundary Layer (J E Drew & W Kley)
• The Interaction between the Stream and the Accretion Disk (M Livio)
• Tidal Effects on Accretion Disks in Close Binary Systems (Y Osaki et al.)
• Accretion Disks in Bright X-Ray Binaries (H Inoue)
• X-Ray Illumination Models of Soft X-Ray Transients (J M Hameury et al.)
• Black Hole Accretion Disk Instabilities (S Mineshige & M Kusunose)