Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2016
Cataclysmic Variables are binary star systems and so are closely connected to the subject of this meeting. The stars revolve around the center of mass of the system. The gas lost by the secondary through the inner Lagrangian point enters the Roche lobe of the white dwarf with the angular momentum of the L1 point and, therefore, forms an accretion disk which rotates around the white dwarf. The gas must lose angular momentum to fall onto the white dwarf, and the white dwarf itself must rotate as it accretes infalling material and angular momentum and is gradually spun up. We will review what is known about these phenomena, and emphasize the new results about the white dwarfs that have been learned in the past few years.