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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Over the past few years, significant advances have been made in our understanding of the nova outburst. The theoretical studies have shown not only that a thermonuclear runaway in the envelope of a white dwarf reproduces the gross features of the nova outburst (c.f.; Starrfield, Sparks, and Truran 1978, Sparks, Starrfield, and Truran, 1978, Gallagher and Starrfield 1978), but also made important predictions regarding the observed behavior of the outburst itself. The observational studies have provided us with new data concerning the evolution of the bolometric light curve of a nova during outburst, the elemental abundances in the ejecta, the formation of dust during the outburst, and the structure of nova binaries (c.f., Gallagher and Starrfield 1978).