English

A Far Ultraviolet Study of the Old Nova V841 Oph

Astrophysics 2009-11-11 v1

Abstract

We have carried out a synthetic spectral analysis of archival IUE spectra of the old nova V841 Oph (Nova Oph 1848) taken 15 years apart. The spectra reveal a rising continuum shortward of 1560\AA, a C {\sc iv} P-Cygni profile indicative of wind outflow associated with disk accretion in one spectrum, a deep Ly α\alpha profile, and strong N {\sc v} (1238\AA, 1242\AA) and O {\sc v} (1371\AA) wind/coronal absorption lines. Numerous sharp interstellar resonance lines are also present. A grid of high gravity atmospheres and accretion disk models, spanning a wide range of inclinations, accretion rates and white dwarf masses was compared to the de-reddened spectra. We find that, for a steady state accretion disk model to account for the FUV spectra, the accretion rate is only \sim3 ×\times 1011^{-11} M\sun_{\sun}/yr, 147 years after its outburst in 1848, with an implied distance within \sim300 pc. The accretion rate at 147 years post-outburst is smaller than expected for an old nova.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0509544,
  title  = {A Far Ultraviolet Study of the Old Nova V841 Oph},
  author = {Scott G. Engle and Edward M. Sion},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0509544},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

6 b/w figures, 2 tables, preprint accepted in the November 2005 issue of PASP