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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Some recent photometric and spectroscopic results for this “ultrashort” period system are summarized, and several straightforward consequences of these results for our understanding of the evolution of cataclysmic binaries are pointed out: The space motion of Z Cha is characteristic of the old disk population. The white dwarf cannot be composed primarily of He, unless it grew by accretion by at least 20%. The inferred masses of the component stars, combined with the usual gravitational quadrupole formula, probably do not suffice to explain the inferred rate of mass transfer, even in quiescence. The secondary star does not lie on the computed evolutionary tracks in the period - mass diagram of Paczynski and Sienkiewicz.