Spiral waves in accretion discs - theory

Spirals shocks have been widely studied in the context of galactic dynamics and protostellar discs. They may however also play an important role in some classes of close binary stars, and more particularly in cataclysmic variables. In this paper, we review the physics of spirals waves in accretion discs, present the results of numerical simulations and consider whether theory can be reconcilied with observations.