Multicolor Photometry of the 2001 Superoutburst of WZ Sagittae

We present the results of U-band and multi-color photometry during the 2001superoutburst of WZ Sagittae. Our 10 nights of U-band photometry span the timeinterval from HJD 2452118 to 2452197 while our multi-color observations rangefrom HJD 2452115 to 2452197. The U-band light curves are generally in agreementwith other datasets obtained during the superoutburst showing highly modulatedlight early on, rebrightenings, and superhumps of similar shape and period(except during the rebrightening peak). One of our multi-color datasetsfortuitously covers the first rebrightening and allows determination of theaccretion disk color temperature before, during, and after the event. It isseen that the rebrightening is a change from a neutral disk (T~7000K) to anionized disk (T$\sim$10000K) and back again. We develop a simple limit cyclemodel for this behavior which approximately predicts the semi-periodictimescale observed for the rebrightenings. We discuss our results in relationto accretion disk structure during superoutburst.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures - To Appear in June 2004 PAS