您选择的条件: John R. Thorstensen
  • CSS1603+19: a low-mass polar near the cataclysmic variable period minimum

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: CSS1603+19 is a cataclysmic variable (CV) with an orbital period of 81.96 min, near the minimal period of cataclysmic variables. It is unusual in having a strong mid-infrared excess inconsistent with thermal emission from a brown dwarf companion. Here we present time-resolved multi-wavelength observations of this system. WISE photometry indicates that the mid-infrared excess displays a one-magnitude eclipsing-like variability during the orbit. We obtained near-infrared and optical spectroscopy using Gemini, MDM and APO telescopes. Near-infrared spectra show possible cyclotron features indicating that the white dwarf has a magnetic field of about 5MG. Optical and near-infrared spectra display double-peaked emission lines, with both components showing strong radial velocity variations during the orbital period and with the broad component leading the narrow component stably by about 0.2 of the orbital phase. We construct a physical model informed by existing observations of the system and determine that one component likely originates from the accretion column onto the magnetized white dwarf in synchronous rotation with the orbital motion and the other from the Roche overflow point. This allows us to constrain the masses of the binary components to be $M_1>0.24 M_{\odot}$ for the white dwarf accretor and $M_2=0.0644\pm0.0074 M_\odot$ for the donor. We classify the system as an AM Herculis star, or a polar. It has likely completed its stint on the period gap, but has not yet gone through the period bounce.

  • Followup ground-based observations of the dwarf nova KZ Gem

    分类: 天文学 >> 天体物理学 提交时间: 2020-03-09

    摘要: We present spectroscopy of stars in the immediate vicinity of the dwarf nova (DN) KZ Gem to confirm its identification, which had been ambiguous in the literature. Analysis of 73 radial velocities spanning from 2014 to 2019 provides a high-precision orbital period of 0.2224628(2) d (~5.34 hr) and shows KZ Gem to be a double-lined DN. Time series photometry taken from 2016 to 2018 shows a variable double-hump modulation with a full amplitude of ~0.3 mag, along with five Gaussian-like transient events lasting ~30 min or more. Using the light curve code XRBinary and nonlinear fitting code NMfit, we obtain an optimized binary model of the dwarf nova (DN) KZ Gem, from time series photometry, consisting of a Roche-lobe-filling K type dwarf with a mass transfer rate of 2.7 - 7.9 x 10^{-10} solar mass per yr to a large, cool and thick disk surrounding a white dwarf, in an orbit with an inclination of 51.6(+/-1.4) degree. Two hotspots on the disk are demonstrated to cause the observed variations in the ellipsoidal modulations from the secondary star. This physical model is compatible with the Gaia distance of KZ Gem.