The Kepler Light Curves of V1504 Cygni and V344 Lyrae: A Study of the Outburst Properties
We examine the Kepler light curves of V1504 Cyg and V344 Lyr, encompassing approximately 460 d at 1 min cadence. During this span each system exhibited approximately 40 outbursts, including four superoutbursts. We find that, in both systems, the normal outbursts lying between two superoutbursts increase in duration by a factor approximately 1.2 - 1.7, and then reset to a small value after the following superoutburst. In V344 Lyr the trend of quiescent intervals between normal outbursts is to increase to a local maximum about half way through the supercycle the interval from one superoutburst to the next - and then to decrease back to a small value by the time of the next superoutburst, whereas for V1504 Cyg the quiescent intervals are relatively constant during the supercycle. Both of these trends are inconsistent with the Osaki's thermal-tidal model, which robustly predicts a secular increase in the quiescent intervals between normal outbursts during a supercycle. Also, most of the normal outbursts have an asymmetric, fast-rise/slower-decline shape, which would be consistent with outbursts triggered at large radii. The exponential rate of decay of the plateau phase of the superoutbursts is 8 d mag(sup -1) for approximately 1504 Cyg and 12 d mag(sup -1) for V344 Lyr. This time scale gives a direct measure of the VISCOUS time scale III the outer accretion disk given the expectation that the entire disk is in the hot, viscous state during superoutburst. The resulting constraint on the Shakura-Sunyaev parameter, alpha(sub hot) approximately equal to 0.1, is consistent with the value inferred from the fast dwarf nova decays. By looking at the slow decay rate for superoutbursts, which occur in systems below the period gap, in combination with the slow decay rate in one long outburst above the period gap (in U Gem), we infer a steep dependence of the decay rate on orbital period for long outbursts. We argue that this relation implies a steep dependence of alpha(sub cold) on orbital period, which may be consistent with recent findings of Patterson, and is consistent with tidal torquing as being the dominant angular momentum transport mechanism in quiescent disks in interacting binary systems.