The description of the feedback mechanism is one of the crucial points in the understanding of self-sustained flow oscillations, such as the edge tone or the cavity tone. In this paper a new model for the edge tone, using linear adjoint modes is proposed for low speeds, when acoustic effects are negligible. The two crucial points of the model are (i) a new relationship between the jet oscillation and the generated vortex at the edge tip and (ii) a new model for the effect of the generated vortex on the oscillation. The frequency corresponding to the optimum open-loop gain of the feedback mechanism was compared with experimental data and good agreement was found.