Spectroscopic Observations of the Exposed White Dwarfs in the Dwarf Novae WZ Sagittae, U Geminorum and VW Hydri-Cont

Details Spectroscopic Observations of the Exposed White Dwarfs in the Dwarf Novae WZ Sagittae, U Geminorum and VW Hydri-Cont Spectroscopic Observations of the Exposed White Dwarfs in the Dwarf Novae WZ Sagittae, U Geminorum and VW Hydri-Cont

Jul 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992hst..prop.5078s&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #5078

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Hst Proposal Id #5078

Scientific paper

The central accreting object in compact binaries and other accreting systems is usually hidden from direct observation, enshrouded by optically thick accretion disks which are opaque to the radiation emitted by the central object as it accretes matter. However there are three dwarf novae which clearly reveal their underlying white dwarf accretor in the far UV during dwarf nova quiescence. By probing these degenerate stars before and after their disk accretion events, fundamental insight about the physics of accretion through a disk/boundary layer onto the central object would be attainable. With the HST sensitivity and velocity resolution we will probe the physics of the accretion process in a way never before possible and test/constrain theoretical models of (a) boundary layer heating, depth and mass of heated layers following dwarf nova mass/energy deposition; (b) shear mixing of matter with angular momentum (with conversion of rotational kinetic energy into heat) versus radial accretion; (c) physical processes in the white dwarf envelope (diffusion, convection, mixing and dilution, dredgeup from deeper layers, magnetic channelling etc.) which control/modify the flow of accreted elements. The carbon in WZ Sge may provide the only evidence, independent of often uncertain nova shell abundances, that heavy element dredgeup of core material occurs during the accretion process in cataclysmic variables.

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