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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
The minimum period of hydrogen rich cataclysmic binaries at about 80 minutes is due to evolution driven by gravitational radiation. The nature of the gap between 2 and 3 hour periods is less clear. Magnetic braking may be responsible, but this would be in contradiction with the hibernating nova scenario. It is interesting that contact binaries of W UMa type are subject to little or no magnetic braking.