The light curve simulations of the 2021 anomalous event in SS Cygni

Abstract

Abstract The prototype dwarf nova SS Cyg unexpectedly exhibited an anomalous event in its light curve in the early few months of 2021 in which regular dwarf nova-type outbursts stopped, and only small-amplitude fluctuations occurred. Inspired by this event, we have performed numerical simulations of light curves of SS Cyg by varying mass transfer rates and varying viscosity parameters in the cool disk. We have also studied the effect of gas-stream overflows beyond the outer disk edge in the light curve simulations. We have confirmed that the enhanced mass transfer is not likely to be responsible for the 2021 anomalous event or its forerunner. We have found that the enhancement of the viscosity in the disk may reproduce the forerunner of that event but may not be sufficient to explain the 2021 anomalous event, although the latter result might be particular to the thermal equilibrium curve we used. Within our simulations, a model of the gas-stream overflow with a slightly higher mass transfer rate than that of our standard model reproduces light curves similar to the 2021 anomalous event. We suggest that the gas-stream overflow is necessary to reproduce that event. The gas-stream overflow may also be responsible for the abnormally high X-ray flux during the normal quiescent state in SS Cyg.