Spectroscopic Classes of Galactic Novae

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

It has been proposed by Williams (1992, AJ, 104, 725) that classical novae can be broadly divided into two spectroscopic classes: the Fe II and the He/N novae. In the first few weeks after eruption, the Fe II novae display prominent Balmer and Fe II emission lines (often showing P Cygni absorption profiles), while their He/N counterparts exhibit strong lines of H, He and N with little or no Fe II emission. It is generally accepted that the Fe II novae tend to evolve more slowly, have lower expansion velocities, and have a lower level of ionization compared with He/N novae. In order to explore these correlations further, and to gain insight into the origin of these differences, I have compiled a list of more than 100 Galactic classical novae, going back more than a century, for which spectroscopic observations are available. In most cases the available data can be used to assign tentative spectroscopic classes to these novae. Correlations between spectroscopic class and properties such as the nova expansion velocity and optical fade rate will be presented, showing that virtually all of the novae with fade rates greater than 0.4 mag/day and expansion velocities characterized by FWHM (H-alpha) > 3000 km/s belong to the He/N class, while those novae with fade rates less than 0.1 mag/day and FWHM (H-alpha) < 2000 km/s belong overwhelmingly to the Fe II class. Finally, the Galactic spatial distribution of the two spectroscopic classes will be presented and discussed. This work is being supported in part by NSF grant AST-0607682.

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