ULTRACAM observations of two accreting white dwarf pulsators

ULTRACAM observations of two accreting white dwarf pulsators

In this paper, we present high time-resolution observations of GW Librae (GW Lib) and SDSS J161033.64−010223.3 (SDSS 1610) – two cataclysmic variables which have shown periodic variations attributed to non-radial pulsations of the white dwarf (WD). We observed both these systems in their quiescent states with ULTRACAM on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the University of Cape Town Photometer ...

Seismology of the Accreting White Dwarf in Gw Lib

We present a first analysis of the g-mode oscillation spectrum for the white dwarf (WD) primary of GW Lib, a faint cataclysmic variable (CV). Stable periodicities have been observed from this WD for a number of years, but their interpretation as stellar pulsations has been hampered by a lack of theoretical models appropriate to an accreting WD. Using the results of Townsley and Bildsten, we con...

Determining the mass of the accreting white dwarf inmagnetic

We have extracted spectra of 20 magnetic Cataclysmic Variables (mCVs) from the RXTE archive and tted them using the X-ray continuum method of Cropper et al to determine the mass of the accreting white dwarf in each system. We nd evidence that the mass distribution of these mCVs is signiicantly diierent to that of non-magnetic isolated white dwarfs, with the white dwarfs in mCVs being biased tow...

Dissecting accretion and outflows in accreting white dwarf binaries

Non-dissipative tidal synchronization in accreting binary white dwarf systems

We study a non-dissipative hydrodynamical mechanism that can stabilize the spin of the accretor in an ultracompact double white dwarf (WD) binary. This novel synchronization mechanism relies on a non-linear coupling between tides and the uniform (or rigid) rotation mode, which spins down the background star. The essential physics of the synchronization mechanism is summarized as follows. As the...