Testing the first direct measurement of cataclysmic variable evolution: the search for a circumbinary disk or a low-mass companion around NN Serpentis

Details Testing the first direct measurement of cataclysmic variable evolution: the search for a circumbinary disk or a low-mass companion around NN Serpentis Testing the first direct measurement of cataclysmic variable evolution: the search for a circumbinary disk or a low-mass companion around NN Serpentis

May 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006sptz.prop30070b&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #30070

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We obtained high time-resolution photometry using the high speed CCD camera ULTRACAM between 2002 and 2004, which revealed a gradual reduction in the orbital period of the pre-cataclysmic variable NN Serpentis. There are three possible explanations for this period change: firstly, we may have been successful in obtaining the first and only direct measurement of the braking rate of a close binary system, in which case our measured values are approximately 2 orders of magnitude greater than predicted, and pose serious problems for the theory of close binary evolution. Secondly, the unusually high braking rate may be caused by the presence of a circumbinary disk, which would help to answer two of the outstanding problems with current CV theory - namely the high mass-transfer rates seen in some CVs, and the fact that the minimum observed value in the CV period distribution is approximately 15% longer than expected. Finally, our observations could be explained by a light travel-time effect caused by a third body in orbit around the binary, which would raise major questions about the evolutionary history of the system, in particular how a third body has managed to remain in a stable orbit throughout periods of intense mass-loss in the central binary. We intend to use IRAC observations to search for a mid-infrared excess in the spectral energy distribution of NN Ser, which would confirm the presence of either a disk or a third body. We then propose to use HST imaging to attempt to resolve a third body, allowing us to discriminate between the two possibilities. If both methods fail to reveal any extra system components, we will have ruled out our only remaining alternatives to a genuinely high angular momentum loss rate in this system, with profound implications for CV evolution.

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