The disk instability model for dwarf nova outbursts

The development and the present state of the disk instability model for outbursts of dwarf nova are reviewed. Two intrinsic instabilities are known in dwarf nova accretion disks, i.e., the thermal instability and the tidal instability. The thermal-tidal instability model (abbreviated the TTI model) that combines these two intrinsic instabilities was first proposed in 1989 by Osaki to explain the superoutburst phenomenon of SU UMa stars. In this paper a complete account of the TTI model is presented. We first explain the basic concept of the model and how it works for the superoutburst phenomenon. We then discuss recent refinements of the model, in particular on the start and the end of superoutbursts, by which we are now able to explain wide varieties in superoutburst light curves of different stars and of different superoutbursts within one and the same star. We also discuss some exceptional cases that apparently seem to contradict the theory, such as the 1985 superoutburst of U Gem itself. It is argued that the TTI model can after all explain most of the observed phenomena related to superoutbursts and superhumps in dwarf novae.