Related papers: On Orbital Period Changes in Nova Outbursts
Contact binary systems (also known as W UMa systems) consist of a pair of hydrogen-burning dwarf stars orbiting each other so closely that they share a common envelope. Although they are relatively common, there is as yet no established…
We present the first reliable determination of the orbital period of the recurrent nova V2487 Oph (Nova Oph 1998). We derived a value of $0.753 \pm 0.016$ d ($18.1 \pm 0.4$ h) from the radial velocity curve of the intense He II…
Orbital period changes of binary stars may be caused by the presence of a third massive body in the system. Here we have searched the archive of the Wide Angle Search for Planets (SuperWASP) project for evidence of period variations in…
The monotonic increase of the radius of low mass stars during their ascent on the red giant branch halts when they suffer a temporary contraction. This occurs when the hydrogen burning shell reaches the discontinuity in hydrogen content…
We study the variability of the cataclysmic variable DO Dra, on time-scales of between minutes and decades. The characteristic decay time dt/dm=0.902(3) days/mag was estimated from our 3 nights of CCD R observations. The quiescent data show…
Planets around binary stars and those in multiplanet systems may experience resonant eccentricity excitation and disruption due to perturbations from a distant stellar companion. This "evection resonance" occurs when the apsidal precession…
Rotation has a number of important effects on the evolution of stars. It decreases the surface gravity, causes enhanced mass loss and leads to surface abundance anomalies of various chemical isotopes. We have adapted the Cambridge stellar…
We observed the 2002 October-November outburst of the dwarf nova CW Mon. The outburst showed a clear signature of a premaximum halt, and a more rapid decline after reaching the outburst maximum. On two separate occasions, during the…
Astrophysical jets seem to occur in nearly all types of accreting objects: from supermassive black holes to young stellar objects. Based on X-ray binaries, a unified scenario describing the disc/jet coupling has evolved and extended to many…
We observed the 2014 superoutburst of the SU UMa-type intermediate polar CC Scl. We detected superhumps with a mean period of 0.05998(2) d during the superoutburst plateau and during three nights after the fading. During the…
We report the identification of cyclical changes in the orbital period of the eclipsing cataclysmic variable HT Cas. We measured new white dwarf mid-eclipse timings and combined with published measurements to construct an…
A modulation in the V-band with period 527.84+/-1.81 sec and amplitude 0.023 magnitude, attributable to the spin of the magnetic white dwarf primary star, has been detected in 7.5 hours of V-band CCD photometry data recorded during the…
The surface rotations of some red giants are so fast that they must have been spun up by tidal interaction with a close companion, either another star, a brown dwarf, or a planet. We focus here on the case of red giants that are spun up by…
The evolution of planetary systems around white dwarfs is crucial to understanding the presence of planetary material in the atmospheres of white dwarfs. These systems uniquely probe exoplanetary compositions. Periodic signals in the…
We obtained time-resolved optical photometry and spectroscopy of the nova-like variable KR Aurigae in the low state. The spectrum reveals a DAB white dwarf and a mid-M dwarf companion. Using the companion star's $i$-band ellipsoidal…
We argue that the outbursts of the FU Orionis stars occur on timescales which are much longer than expected from the standard disc instability model with \alpha_{c} \gtrsim 10^{-3}. The outburst, recurrence, and rise times are consistent…
We conduct numerical simulations of multiple nova eruptions in detached, widely separated symbiotic systems that include an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) companion to investigate the impact of white dwarf (WD) mass and binary separation on…
An apparent sudden change in the outburst recurrence time displayed by the Rapid Burster occurred around the end of 1999. The time between consecutive outbursts shrinked from ~200 to ~100 days somewhere between November 1999 and March 2000.…
From photometric observations of the old nova RW UMi (1956) we have discovered the presence of five sub-orbital periodicities. The longest period, P1 = 54.4 min, always observed, could be the beat period between the orbital period and the…
We present the analysis of existing optical photometry and new optical spectroscopy of the candidate cataclysmic variable star OGLE-BLG504.12.201843. As was shown previously, this object has an orbital period of 0.523419 days and exhibits…