XMM-Newton observations of polars in low accretion states

Details XMM-Newton observations of polars in low accretion states XMM-Newton observations of polars in low accretion states

2004-02-23

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402526v1

Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 350 (2004) 1373

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

accepted MNRAS

Scientific paper

10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07732.x

We have made a series of snap-shot observations of 37 polars using XMM-Newton. We found that 16 of these systems were in a low, or much reduced, accretion state. Of those, 6 were not detected in X-rays. This suggests that in any survey of polars, around half will be in a low accretion state. We tested if there was a bias towards certain orbital periods: this is not the case. Of the 10 systems which were detected at low, but significant rates in X-rays, 8 showed significant variability in their X-ray light curves. This implies that non-uniform accretion still takes place during low accretion epochs. The bolometric luminosity of these systems is ~10^30 ergs s, two orders of magnitude less than for systems in a high accretion state. The X-ray spectra show no evidence of a distinct soft X-ray component. However, the X-ray and UV data imply that such a low temperature component exists: its temperature is low enough for its flux distribution to move outside the bandpass of the X-ray instruments.

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