  We report on a discovery of "negative" superhumps during the 2011 January
superoutburst of ER UMa. During the superoutburst which started on 2011 January
16, we detected negative superhumps having a period of 0.062242(9) d, shorter
than the orbital period by 2.2%. No evidence of positive superhumps was
detected during this observation. This finding indicates that the disk
exhibited retrograde precession during this superoutburst, contrary to all
other known cases of superoutbursts. The duration of this superoutburst was
shorter than those of ordinary superoutbursts and the intervals of normal
outbursts were longer than ordinary ones. We suggest a possibility that such
unusual outburst properties are likely a result of the disk tilt, which is
supposed to be a cause of negative superhumps: the tilted disk could prevent
the disk from being filled with materials in the outmost region which is
supposed to be responsible for long-duration superoutbursts in ER UMa-type
dwarf novae. The discovery signifies the importance of the classical prograde
precession in sustaining long-duration superoutbursts. Furthermore, the
presence of pronounced negative superhumps in this system with a high
mass-transfer rate favors the hypothesis that hydrodynamical lift is the cause
of the disk tilt.
