Bibcode
McAllister, M.; Littlefair, S. P.; Parsons, S. G.; Dhillon, V. S.; Marsh, T. R.; Gänsicke, B. T.; Breedt, E.; Copperwheat, C.; Green, M. J.; Knigge, C.; Sahman, D. I.; Dyer, Martin J.; Kerry, P.; Ashley, R. P.; Irawati, P.; Rattanasoon, S.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 486, Issue 4, p.5535-5551
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7
2019
Citations
55
Refereed citations
44
Description
We present measurements of the component masses in 15 Cataclysmic
Variables (CVs) - 6 new estimates and 9 improved estimates. We provide
new calibrations of the relationship between superhump period excess and
mass ratio, and use this relation to estimate donor star masses for 225
superhumping CVs. With an increased sample of donor masses we revisit
the implications for CV evolution. We confirm the high mass of white
dwarfs in CVs, but find no trend in white dwarf mass with orbital
period. We argue for a revision in the location of the orbital period
minimum of CVs to 79.6 ± 0.2 min, significantly shorter than
previous estimates. We find that CV donors below the gap have an
intrinsic scatter of only 0.005 R⊙ around a common
evolutionary track, implying a correspondingly small variation in
angular momentum loss (AML) rates. In contrast to prior studies, we find
that standard CV evolutionary tracks - without additional AML - are a
reasonable fit to the donor masses just below the period gap, but that
they do not reproduce the observed period minimum, or fit the donor
radii below 0.1 M⊙.
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