Rotation Rates of White Dwarfs and Boundary Layers in Cataclysmic Variables: CYCLE4 Medium

Details Rotation Rates of White Dwarfs and Boundary Layers in Cataclysmic Variables: CYCLE4 Medium Rotation Rates of White Dwarfs and Boundary Layers in Cataclysmic Variables: CYCLE4 Medium

Jul 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994hst..prop.5347w&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #5347

Physics

Hst Proposal Id #5347 Hot Stars Eruptive Binaries

Scientific paper

A long standing problem in cataclysmic variables has been the lack of observed flux from boundary layers in non-magnetic systems. This is frequently explained as due to the rapid rotation of the white dwarf. Accretion of only 0.1 solar masses is enough to spin up a white dwarf almost to its breakup velocity. It then reaches an equilibrium rotation rate where mass is accreted but does not add angular momentum to the white dwarf. However, no observational confirmation of such rapid rotation rates has yet been obtained. We propose to observe white dwarf photospheric lines in the UV and use model atmospheres to determine the rotational broadening. If we find that rapidly rotating white dwarfs are present this explanation for the lack of flux from boundary layers is very likely to be true. We will observe 2 dwarf novae with HRS and G160M covering 1382-1415 Angstroms. We chose as our targets the brightest (in the UV) dwarf novae which are not eclipsing, have infrequent outbursts, and for which there is evidence of the presence of Si IV 1393, 1402 absorption in IUE spectra. As a bonus of these observations we will make the first ever radial velocity measurements directly from the white dwarfs in cataclysmic variables.

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