  The interaction of a massive binary and a non-self-gravitating circumbinary
accretion disc is considered. The shape of the stationary twisted disc produced
by the binary is calculated. It is shown that the inner part of the disc must
lie in the binary orbital plane for any value of viscosity.
  When the inner disc midplane is aligned with the binary orbital plane on the
scales of interest and it rotates in the same sense as the binary, the
modification of the disc structure and the rate of decay of the binary orbit,
assumed circular, due to tidal exchange of angular momentum with the disc, are
calculated. It is shown that the modified disc structure is well described by a
self-similar solution of the non-linear diffusion equation governing the
evolution of the disc surface density. The calculated time scale for decay of
the binary orbit is always smaller than the "accretion" time $t_{acc}=m/{\dot
M}$ ($m$ is the mass of the secondary component, and $\dot M$ is the disc
accretion rate), and is determined by ratio of secondary mass $m$, assumed to
be much smaller than the primary mass, the disc mass inside the initial binary
orbit, and the form of viscosity in the disc.
