Abstract
We calculate the visual light curve of CAL 87 based on the assumption that an accreting, steadily burning white dwarf irradiates the accretion disk and the secondary star, as suggested by van den Heuvel et al. (1992). The shape of the eclipse light curve and the absolute luminosities put strong constraints on the contributions of the various elements in the system. We find a reasonable fit is obtained with the following sources of visual light: a Roche lobe filling secondary star where the energy from irradiation is spread out over the surface, and an accretion disk with an optically thick, cold, clumpy spray which is caused by the massive accretion stream impinging on the disk (hot spot). This spray moving around the disk and illuminated by the white dwarf is found to be the brightest source of visual light in the binary and can account for the asymmetry in the light curve.
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