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Searching for nova shells around cataclysmic variables

Searching for nova shells around cataclysmic variables
Searching for nova shells around cataclysmic variables
We present the results of a search for nova shells around 101 cataclysmic variables (CVs), using H α images taken with the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) and the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope Photometric H α Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS). Both telescopes are located on La Palma. We concentrated our WHT search on nova-like variables, whilst our IPHAS search covered all CVs in the IPHAS footprint. We found one shell out of the 24 nova-like variables we examined. The newly discovered shell is around V1315 Aql and has a radius of ˜2.5 arcmin, indicative of a nova eruption approximately 120 yr ago. This result is consistent with the idea that the high mass-transfer rate exhibited by nova-like variables is due to enhanced irradiation of the secondary by the hot white dwarf following a recent nova eruption. The implications of our observations for the lifetime of the nova-like variable phase are discussed. We also examined four asynchronous polars, but found no new shells around any of them, so we are unable to confirm that a recent nova eruption is the cause of the asynchronicity in the white dwarf spin. We find tentative evidence of a faint shell around the dwarf nova V1363 Cyg. In addition, we find evidence for a light echo around the nova V2275 Cyg, which erupted in 2001, indicative of an earlier nova eruption ˜300 yr ago, making V2275 Cyg a possible recurrent nova.
novae, cataclysmic variables
1365-2966
2863-2876
Sahman, D.I.
a2a291c4-7fd2-4365-a4d4-11e6305ec56a
Dhillon, V.S.
8a4c9a0c-87a7-44a9-ac04-4fbab8662c1d
Knigge, C.
ac320eec-631a-426e-b2db-717c8bf7857e
Marsh, T.R.
9bb19766-4a1d-4f18-b137-4731ae347638
Sahman, D.I.
a2a291c4-7fd2-4365-a4d4-11e6305ec56a
Dhillon, V.S.
8a4c9a0c-87a7-44a9-ac04-4fbab8662c1d
Knigge, C.
ac320eec-631a-426e-b2db-717c8bf7857e
Marsh, T.R.
9bb19766-4a1d-4f18-b137-4731ae347638

Sahman, D.I., Dhillon, V.S., Knigge, C. and Marsh, T.R. (2015) Searching for nova shells around cataclysmic variables. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 451 (3), 2863-2876. (doi:10.1093/mnras/stv1150).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We present the results of a search for nova shells around 101 cataclysmic variables (CVs), using H α images taken with the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) and the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope Photometric H α Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS). Both telescopes are located on La Palma. We concentrated our WHT search on nova-like variables, whilst our IPHAS search covered all CVs in the IPHAS footprint. We found one shell out of the 24 nova-like variables we examined. The newly discovered shell is around V1315 Aql and has a radius of ˜2.5 arcmin, indicative of a nova eruption approximately 120 yr ago. This result is consistent with the idea that the high mass-transfer rate exhibited by nova-like variables is due to enhanced irradiation of the secondary by the hot white dwarf following a recent nova eruption. The implications of our observations for the lifetime of the nova-like variable phase are discussed. We also examined four asynchronous polars, but found no new shells around any of them, so we are unable to confirm that a recent nova eruption is the cause of the asynchronicity in the white dwarf spin. We find tentative evidence of a faint shell around the dwarf nova V1363 Cyg. In addition, we find evidence for a light echo around the nova V2275 Cyg, which erupted in 2001, indicative of an earlier nova eruption ˜300 yr ago, making V2275 Cyg a possible recurrent nova.

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Published date: 1 August 2015
Keywords: novae, cataclysmic variables

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Local EPrints ID: 430101
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/430101
ISSN: 1365-2966
PURE UUID: 896e2f7f-6a1a-44f5-9b10-68b86ec988a4

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Date deposited: 11 Apr 2019 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 00:53

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Contributors

Author: D.I. Sahman
Author: V.S. Dhillon
Author: C. Knigge
Author: T.R. Marsh

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