Challenging the disk instability model: I -- The case of YZ LMi

TL;DR

This study challenges the disk instability model for YZ LMi by analyzing emission features and suggests that a high-viscosity mass-transfer instability model better explains the observed outburst behavior and disk dynamics.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the observed emission features in YZ LMi are inconsistent with the disk instability model and supports the mass-transfer instability model as a more plausible explanation.

Findings

Gas stream overflow is not feasible in YZ LMi.

Stream penetration occurs in high-viscosity MTIM disks during outbursts.

Outbursts are likely driven by enhanced mass transfer in a high-viscosity disk.

Abstract

Observations of YZ LMi show enhanced emission along the stream trajectory beyond impact at disk rim during outbursts as well as when the quiescent disk is large. We investigated whether these features can be explained in terms of either gas stream overflow or penetration within the frameworks of the disk-instability (DIM) and the mass-transfer instability (MTIM) models of outbursting disks. Gas stream overflow is not possible because the vertical scaleheight of the stream is significantly lower than that of the outer disk and because there is no combination of parameters which enables stream overflow on a larger disk while preventing it on a smaller disk. Stream penetration requires the gas stream to be denser than the outer disk regions. This requirement cannot be met by a low-viscosity DIM disk because its density is significantly larger than that of the gas stream over the whole range of mass transfer rates where the thermal-viscous instability occurs. On the other hand, the high-viscosity MTIM disk has much lower densities which decrease with increasing radius, easily allowing for gas stream penetration during outbursts (when mass transfer rate and stream density increase) as well as in large quiescent disks. The observed features are not consistent with DIM, but can be plausibly explained by MTIM. These results suggest that the outbursts of YZ LMi are the response of a high-viscosity disk to bursts of enhanced mass transfer rate. In this case, the outburst decline timescale of (2-3) d implies a viscosity parameter in the range alpha=3-4.