Classical Novae as Super-Eddington Objects

Nir J. Shaviv

Published 2002-07-29Version 1

Several of the inconsistencies plaguing the field of novae are resolved once we consider novae to be steady state super-Eddington objects. In particular, we show that the super-Eddington shell burning state is a natural consequence of the equations of stellar structure, and that the predicted mass loss in the super-Eddington state agrees with nova observations. We also find that the transition phase of novae can be naturally explained as "stagnating" winds.