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Fireballs, Flares and Flickering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

K. J. Pearson ,
Keith Horne  and
Warren Skidmore
K. J. Pearson
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Nicholson Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4001, U.S.A.
Keith Horne
Affiliation:
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9SS, U.K.
Warren Skidmore
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, Irvine, CA 92697-4574, U.S.A.

Abstract

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We review our understanding of the prototype “Propeller” system AE Aqr and we examine its flaring behaviour in detail. The flares are thought to arise from collisions between high density regions in the material expelled from the system after interaction with the rapidly rotating magnetosphere of the white dwarf. We show calculations of the time-dependent emergent optical spectra from the resulting hot, expanding ball of gas and derive values for the mass, lengthscale and temperature of the material involved. We see that the fits suggest that the secondary star in this system has reduced metal abundances and that, counter-intuitively, the evolution of the fireballs is best modelled as isothermal.

Type
Part 6. Propeller Systems
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 190: Magnetic Cataclysmic Variables , 2004 , pp. 279 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004

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