There'll be an entire site for CV Research shortly, but for now, you'll just have to be satisfied with a Quicktime movie of a full superhump precession cycle. The animation was generated from our smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code, visualized using IDL, and then animated using Adobe Premier. It's a 41MB file, so you'll need to have a high-bandwidth connection to download it, and I suggest you download and save it to disk for independent playback instead of trying to play it within your browser (I had some problems).

Simulation Details
Orbits: 61-96
Number of particles: 50 000
Mass ratio: q = M₂/M₁ = 0.075

I added a sound track that demonstrates the "beat" of the superhump oscillation period with the orbital period. Once per superhump period, there is a sound like an ocean wave (appropriate!). Notice that it begins at orbit 61 with the beep leading the wave sound, they are coincident at orbit 77, and the wave gets progressively later until the end of the simulation. If you watch closely, you can all see the precession of the superhump oscillation over the length of the animation.

• The Superhump Movie (please do not distribute this ''preprint" version)
• Center for Backyard Astrophysics
• CV Catalog