Probing the Paradigm for Cataclysmic Variable Evolution: Circumbinary Disks in the Mid-Infrared

Details Probing the Paradigm for Cataclysmic Variable Evolution: Circumbinary Disks in the Mid-Infrared Probing the Paradigm for Cataclysmic Variable Evolution: Circumbinary Disks in the Mid-Infrared

Jun 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005sptz.prop20221h&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #20221

Computer Science

Scientific paper

The secular evolution of cataclysmic variables (CVs) is driven by the loss of orbital angular momentum. Two mechanisms are usually invoked to account for the dissipation of angular momentum: gravitational radiation and magnetic braking of the secondary star. However, this dual loss-mechanism scenario cannot completely account for the very large mass transfer rates inferred for some CVs or the large spread in mass transfer rates observed at a given orbital period (i.e., evolutionary state). An additional angular momentum loss mechanism is needed; a likely possibility is the presence of a circumbinary disk (CBD) surrounding the CV. The CBD would be large (up to several AU in radius) and cool (a few thousand K at the inner edge to less than 1000 K at the outer edge). Its peak emission occurs in the infrared. We propose to use Spitzer's unique capability to sensitively probe the mid-infrared in order to assemble spectral energy distributions for a sample of 8 CVs, which we can use to search for infrared excess indicative of the presence of a CBD. Our target objects span a variety of CV classes, but there is evidence that all of them have high mass transfer rates that could be driven by the presence of an additional angular momentum loss mechanism.

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