The Dwarf Nova PQ Andromedae
Abstract
We report a photometric study of the WZ Sagittae-type dwarf nova PQ Andromedae. The light curve shows strong (0.05 mag full amplitude) signals with periods of 1263(1) and 634(1) s, and a likely double-humped signal with P=80.6(2) min. We interpret the first two as nonradial pulsation periods of the underlying white dwarf, and the last as the orbital period of the underlying binary. We estimate a distance of 150(50) pc from proper motions and the two standard candles available: the white dwarf and the dwarf-nova outburst. At this distance, the K magnitude implies that the secondary is probably fainter than any star on the main sequence -- indicating a mass below the Kumar limit at 0.075 M_sol. PQ And may be another "period bouncer", where evolution now drives the binary out to longer period.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0506135,
title = {The Dwarf Nova PQ Andromedae},
author = {Joseph Patterson and John Thorstensen and Eve Armstrong and Arne Henden and Robert Hynes},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0506135},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
PDF, 13 pages, 2 figures; accepted, in press, to appear September 2005, PASP; more info at http://cba.phys.columbia.edu/