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On the Time-Scale for Turn-Off of a Nova After the Outburst*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Sumner Starrfield*
Affiliation:
Theoretical Division, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, University of California and Department of Physics, Arizona State University

Extract

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It is now generally accepted that a nova outburst is caused by a thermonuclear runaway (TR) in the accreted hydrogen rich envelope of a carbon white dwarf. Over the past few years we have studied the evolution of such runaways and have shown that the calculated evolutionary sequences are in substantial agreement with the observations (Starrfield, et. al. 1978; Sparks, et. al. 1978). In the published work we have varied the white dwarf mass, the envelope mass, the accreted envelope mass, and the chemical composition in the envelope (Starrfield, et. al. 1976; Gallagher and Starrfield 1978). In all cases we find that a TR results in mass ejection and the luminosity variations of this ejected material can reproduce the observed light curves of the fast and slow novae.

Type
Colloquium Session IV
Copyright
Copyright © The University of Rochester 1979

Footnotes

*

Supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant AST77-23190 to Arizona State University.

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