Related papers: T Pyxidis: Death by a Thousand Novae
The binary companion to the peculiar F supergiant HD 172481 is shown to be a Mira variable with a pulsation period of 312 days. Its characteristics are within the normal range found for solitary Miras of that period, although its pulsation…
We discuss the possibility of observing the transient formation event of an accretion disk from the tidal destruction process of an asteroid near a white dwarf (WD). This scenario is commonly proposed as the explanation for dusty disks…
The current $super-active$ state of the recurrent nova T CrB has been observed with unprecedented detail. Previously published observations provide strong evidence that this state is due to an enhancement of the flow of material through the…
Recent interpretations of narrow, variable absorption lines detected in some Type Ia supernovae suggest that their progenitors are surrounded by dense, circumstellar material. Similar variations detected in the symbiotic recurrent nova…
The old nova V728 Sco has been recently recovered via photometric and spectroscopic observations, 150 years after the nova eruption. The spectral properties pointed to a high-inclination system with a comparatively low mass-transfer rate.…
I report on the cumulative results from a program started 24 years ago designed to measure the orbital period change of recurrent novae (RNe) across an eruption. The goal is to use the orbital period change to measure the mass ejected…
SS Cyg has long been recognized as the prototype of a group of dwarf novae that show only outbursts. However, this object has entered a quite anomalous event in 2021, which at first appeared to be standstill, i.e., an almost constant…
Recurrent nova CI Aquilae has entered the final decline phase a bit before May of 2001, about 300 days after the optical maximum, showing the slowest evolution among recurrent novae. Based on the optically thick wind mass-loss theory of the…
We have measured the orbital light curve of dwarf nova OY Carinae on 8 separate occasions between 1997 September and 2005 December. The measurements were made in white light using CCD photometers on the Mt Canopus 1 m telescope. The time of…
Following the pulsation spectrum of a white dwarf through the heating and cooling involved in a dwarf nova outburst cycle provides a unique view of the changes to convective driving that take place on timescales of months versus millenia…
This report analyzes the I-band CCD photometry of Nova V1974 Cygni from the 1997 observational season. The analysis shows that both short-term modulations with periods 0.0813 and 0.085 days are still present in the light curve of the star.…
We report CCD photometry of the dwarf nova BF Ara throughout fifteen consecutive nights in quiescence. Light curve in this interval is dominated by a large amplitude around 0.8 mag modulation consisting two periods. Higher amplitude signal…
RS Ophiuchi is a recurrent nova system that experiences outbursts every ~20 years, implying accretion at a high rate onto a massive white dwarf. However, previous X-ray observations of the system in quiescence have detected only faint…
The orbital period of the recurrent nova U Sco has been observed to decrease during the 1999 outburst. In an outburst mass is ejected from the surface of the white dwarf. The separation of the binary system widens and the orbital period…
We present VLT spectroscopy and NTT photometry of the faint cataclysmic binary SDSS J003941.06+005427.5. This object shows triple-peaked H-alpha emission with all three peaks variable in both strength and velocity. We measure an orbital…
The recurrent nova RS Oph experienced an outburst in 2006, 21 years after its previous explosion in 1985, as expected. It was observed at almost all wavelengths, and important information about its properties is still being extracted. We…
RS Oph is a recurrent symbiotic nova that undergoes nova-like outbursts on a time scale of 20 years. Its two last eruptions (1985 and 2006) were subject of intensive multiwavelengths observational campaign from the X-rays to the radio. This…
We report the discovery of 1RXH J082623.6-505741, a 10.4 hr orbital period compact binary. Modeling extensive optical photometry and spectroscopy reveals a $\sim 0.4 M_{\odot}$ K-type secondary transferring mass through a low-state…
We present new time-series photometry of the accreting pulsating white dwarf system GW Librae obtained in 2012 and 2013 at the University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory in New Zealand. Our 2012 data show the return of a $\sim$19 minute…
We have performed a timing analysis of all the four X-ray outbursts from the accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 observed so far by the PCA on board RXTE. For each of the outbursts we derived the best-fit value of the time of…