Disk-driven precession in SS 433

The paper demonstrates that a moderately massive disk can cause the Lense-Thirring precession of a compact object (such as a neutron star or black hole) at its center. The inner regions of the disk align with the equator and will precess at the same rate as the compact object; it is proposed that this disk-driven precession produces the 164 day period in SS 433. In this model, SS 433 represents a stage in the evolution of a binary X-ray source, containing a nondegenerate primary star, a compact companion, and an accretion disk about the compact object. The accretion luminosity, which greatly exceeds the Eddington limit, appears as kinetic energy of outflow of accreted material. The high accretion rate causes the inner disk to be thick; this toroidal inner disk collimates the outflow into two beams.