WD 1202-024: the shortest-period pre-cataclysmic variable

Makaleler > Tam Makale · 2017

Yazarlar: S. Rappaport, A. Vanderburg, L. Nelson, B. L. Gary, T. G. Kaye, Belinda KALOMENİ YAKUT, S. B. Howell, J. R. Thorstensen, F. -R. Lachapelle, M. Lundy, J. St-Antoine

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, SCI Expanded İndekslerine Giren Dergi, Uluslararası, Wos, 2017, cilt 471, ss 948-961

DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx1611

Özet

Among the 28 000 targeted stars in K2 Field 10 is the white dwarf WD 1202-024 (EPIC 201283111), first noted in the SDSS survey (SDSS 120515.80-024222.7). We have found that this hot white dwarf (Teff ≃ 22 640 K) is in a very close orbit (P ≃ 71 min) with a star of near brown-dwarf mass ≃0.061 M⊙. This period is very close to, or somewhat below, the minimum orbital period of cataclysmic variables with H-rich donor stars. However, we find no evidence that this binary is currently, or ever was, transferring mass from the low-mass companion to the white dwarf. We therefore tentatively conclude that this system is still in the pre-cataclysmic variable phase, having emerged from a common envelope some 50 ± 20 Myr ago. Because of the 29-min integration time of K2, we use follow-up ground-based photometry to better evaluate the eclipsing light curve. We also utilize the original SDSS spectra, in approximately 15-min segments, to estimate the radial velocity of the white dwarf in its orbit. An analysis of the light curve, with supplementary constraints, leads to the following system parameters: Mwd ≃ 0.415 ± 0.028 M⊙, Rwd ≃ 0.021 ± 0.001 R⊙, Mcom ≃ 0.061 ± 0.010 M⊙ and Rcom ≃ 0.088 ± 0.005 R⊙ where the subscripts ‘wd’ and ‘com’ refer to the white dwarf and low-mass companion, respectively. If our interpretation of this system as a pre-CV is correct, it has the shortest period of any such system yet found and should become a compact CV in less than 250 Myr.

Detay görüntüle