Her X-1: a new model for X-ray dips

A strong X-ray illumination of the optical star atmosphere in Her X-l, asym metric because of a partial shadowing by the tilted warped accretion disk a round central neutron star, leads to the formation of matter flows coming o ut of the orbital plane and crossing the line of sight before entering the disk. We suggest that the absorption of X-ray emission by this how Leads to the formation of pre-eclipse dips. Some anomalous dips (of type I) are for med by the same mechanism. Anomalous dips observed after the turn-on (of ty pe II) and post-eclipse recoveries are due to tidal disk wobbling.