Steeghs, D. (2015) Total eclipse of the heart : the AM CVn Gaia14aae/ASSASN-14cn. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 452 (1). pp. 1060-1067. doi:10.1093/mnras/stv1224 ISSN 0035-8711.

PDF WRAP_MNRAS-2015-Campbell-1060-7.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (762Kb)

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

We report the discovery and characterization of a deeply eclipsing AM CVn-system, Gaia14aae (=ASSASN-14cn). Gaia14aae was identified independently by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN; Shappee et al.) and by the Gaia Science Alerts project, during two separate outbursts. A third outburst is seen in archival Pan-STARRS-1 (PS1; Schlafly et al.; Tonry et al.; Magnier et al.) and ASAS-SN data. Spectroscopy reveals a hot, hydrogen-deficient spectrum with clear double-peaked emission lines, consistent with an accreting double-degenerate classification. We use follow-up photometry to constrain the orbital parameters of the system. We find an orbital period of 49.71 min, which places Gaia14aae at the long period extremum of the outbursting AM CVn period distribution. Gaia14aae is dominated by the light from its accreting white dwarf (WD). Assuming an orbital inclination of 90° for the binary system, the contact phases of the WD lead to lower limits of 0.78 and 0.015 M⊙ on the masses of the accretor and donor, respectively, and a lower limit on the mass ratio of 0.019. Gaia14aae is only the third eclipsing AM CVn star known, and the first in which the WD is totally eclipsed. Using a helium WD model, we estimate the accretor's effective temperature to be 12 900 ± 200 K. The three outburst events occurred within four months of each other, while no other outburst activity is seen in the previous 8 yr of Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS; Drake et al.), Pan-STARRS-1 and ASAS-SN data. This suggests that these events might be rebrightenings of the first outburst rather than individual events.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Eclipsing binaries , Supernovae
Journal or Publication Title:	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0035-8711
Official Date:	1 September 2015
Dates:	Date Event 1 September 2015 Published 16 July 2015 Available 29 May 2015 Accepted 29 May 2015 Submitted
Volume:	452
Number:	1
Page Range:	pp. 1060-1067
DOI:	10.1093/mnras/stv1224
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit:	24 October 2016
Date of first compliant Open Access:	24 October 2016
Funder:	Seventh Framework Programme (European Commission) (FP7), Science and Technology Facilities Council (Great Britain) (STFC), Leverhulme Trust (LT), Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (Italy) (INAF), Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN), Poland. Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego [Ministry of Science and Higher Education] (MNiSW), United States. Department of Energy, Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (Chile) (FONDECYT), Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS), Serbia. Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (MEST), United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant number:	320360, 320964 WDTracer, 264895, 312430 (FP7), #ST/L00073 (STFC), RPG-2012-541 (Leverhulme), 2012/06/M/ST9/00172 (NCN), W32/7.PR/2014 (MNiSW), E-FG02-97ER25308 (Department of Energy), 1151445 (FONDECYT), IC120009 (MAS), 176011, 176004, 176021 (MEST)
Adapted As:

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads