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Are Novae Standard Candles?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Shlomi Pistinner ,
Giora Shaviv ,
Peter H. Hauschildt  and
Sumner Starrfield
Shlomi Pistinner
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheba 84105, Israel
Giora Shaviv
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel
Peter H. Hauschildt
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1504, USA
Sumner Starrfield
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1504, USA

Extract

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Novae in outburst can be used as distance indicators. The distance measurement process is considerably simplified if novae could be regarded as standard candles. The term standard candles in the context of this paper means that the absolute magnitude at maximum for different novae is, to a good approximation, constant. The t3 – Mb diagram (Schmidet 1957) implies that this is the case for M31 and LMC novae (Della Valle & Livio 1995). However, this conclusion does not necessarily apply to non Local Group novae (Livio 1992; Della Valle & Livio 1995); for example the Virgo novae are not similar to Local Group novae (Della Valle & Livio 1995). Here we focus on a question of principle, namely: Does the fact that novae have similar spectra imply that they have similar luminosities?

Type
Novae & Symbiotic Stars
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 158: Cataclysmic Variables and Related Objects , 1996 , pp. 295 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1996

References

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