English

On the Rapid Spin-down and Low Luminosity Pulsed Emission from AE Aquarii

Astrophysics 2009-10-31 v1

Abstract

AE Aqr is an unusual close binary system with a very short white dwarf spin period, a high spin-down rate, a relatively low quiescent luminosity, and clear pulse signals. The exact nature of the large spin-down power has not been well explained mainly due to the fact that the observed luminosities in various energy ranges are much lower than the spin-down power. We consider an unconventional picture of AE Aqr in which an accreting white dwarf, modeled as a magnetic dipole whose axis is misaligned with the spin axis, is rapidly spun-down via gravitational radiation emission and therefore the spin-down power is not directly connected to any observable electromagnetic emission.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9909173,
  title  = {On the Rapid Spin-down and Low Luminosity Pulsed Emission from AE Aquarii},
  author = {Chul-Sung Choi and Insu Yi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9909173},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

25 pages and one PS figure, Submitted to ApJ