Investigating the low-flux states in six Intermediate Polars
Abstract
We present optical photometry of six intermediate polars that exhibit transitions to a low-flux state. For four of these systems, DW Cnc, V515 And, V1223 Sgr and RX J2133.7+5107, we are able to perform timing analysis in and out of the low states. We find that, for DW Cnc and V515 And, the dominant periodicities in the light curves change as the flux decreases, indicating a change in the sources' accretion properties as they transition to the low state. For V1223 Sgr we find that the variability is almost completely quenched at the lowest flux, but do not find evidence for a changing accretion geometry. For RX J2133.7+5107, the temporal properties do not change in the low state, but we do see a period of enhanced accretion that is coincident with increased variability on the beat frequency, which we do not associate with a change in the accretion mechanisms in the system.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2202.08365,
title = {Investigating the low-flux states in six Intermediate Polars},
author = {Ava E. Covington and Aarran W. Shaw and Koji Mukai and Colin Littlefield and Craig O. Heinke and Richard M. Plotkin and Doug Barrett and James Boardman and David Boyd and Stephen M. Brincat and Rolf Carstens and Donald F. Collins and Lewis M. Cook and Walter R. Cooney and David Cejudo Fernández and Sjoerd Dufoer and Shawn Dvorak and Charles Galdies and William Goff and Franz-Josef Hambsch and Steve Johnston and Jim Jones and Kenneth Menzies and Libert A. G. Monard and Etienne Morelle and Peter Nelson and Yenal Öğmen and John W. Rock and Richard Sabo and Jim Seargeant and Geoffrey Stone and Joseph Ulowetz and Tonny Vanmunster},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.08365},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
19 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ. The authors recommend downloading the PDF of this paper, as it takes a while to render online