Astronomers detect a new cataclysmic variable system

Tomasz Nowakowski is a member of the physics.org community.

Astronomers have discovered a new cataclysmic variable through its ultraviolet bursting activity using NASA's Swift spaceship. The Transient UV objects project detected the new CV. There is a paper published on arXiv.org.

A cataclysmic variable is a white dwarf primary in a star system. They drop back down to a quiescent state after increasing in brightness. The center of the Milky Way, the solar neighborhood, and open and globular clusters are some of the environments where these binaries have been found. In CVs, mass transfer from the companion star often occurs through an accretion disk around the white dwarf, and in some cases thermal instability in the disk can cause a dwarf nova.

David Modiano of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is the leader of the team that found a new CV in the field. The new Transient was found in the UV band, six arcs from the center of the galaxy. Data from the Ultraviolet Optical Telescope was used to make the discovery.

We have discovered and characterized a new cataclysmic variable in the UV that we have named TUVO-21acq. The first detection took place in February of 2021. The researchers said there was a second UV eruption in January.

The properties of TUVO-21acq were constrained by the astronomer using UV OT. The source increased in brightness by at least 4.1, 2.4, and 3.5 magnitudes and by at least 3.4, 3.4, and 3.6 magnitudes in the UV bands.

The researchers used the time between the first and last detections to calculate the lower limits for the first and second eruptions. The upper limits were calculated to be 21.2 and 45 days.

The key parameters of TUVO-21acq's outbursts were found to be in line with dwarf novae. The shape and emission features show that the source is a quiescent variable. The astronomer classified TU VO-21acq as a CV.

The scientists confirmed the nature of the source as an accretion white dwarf which underwent a burst of light.

The ability of TUVO to discover previously unclassified Transients in the UV wavelength range is demonstrated by their find.

More information: David Modiano et al, TUVO-21acq: a new cataclysmic variable discovered through a UV outburst. arXiv:2206.10395v1 [astro-ph.HE], arxiv.org/abs/2206.10395

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