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Visual Light from the Eclipsing Supersoft X-Ray Source Cal 87

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

S. Schandl ,
E. Meyer-Hofmeister  and
F. Meyer
S. Schandl
Affiliation:
Max-Planck Institut für Astrophysik, Karl Schwarzschildstr. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
E. Meyer-Hofmeister
Affiliation:
Max-Planck Institut für Astrophysik, Karl Schwarzschildstr. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
F. Meyer
Affiliation:
Max-Planck Institut für Astrophysik, Karl Schwarzschildstr. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany

Extract

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We calculate the visual light curve of CAL 87 based on the assumption that an accreting, steadily burning white dwarf irradiates the accretion disk and the secondary star, as suggested by van den Heuvel et al. (1992). The shape of the eclipse light curve and the absolute luminosities put strong constraints on the contributions of the various elements in the system. We find a reasonable fit is obtained with the following sources of visual light: a Roche lobe filling secondary star where the energy from irradiation is spread out over the surface, and an accretion disk with an optically thick, cold, clumpy spray which is caused by the massive accretion stream impinging on the disk (hot spot). This spray moving around the disk and illuminated by the white dwarf is found to be the brightest source of visual light in the binary and can account for the asymmetry in the light curve.

Type
Supernovae & Supersoft X-Ray Sources
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 158: Cataclysmic Variables and Related Objects , 1996 , pp. 425 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1996

References

Schandl, S., Meyer-Hofmeister, E., Meyer, F., 1996, A&A, submitted (and Green Report No. 912 of the Max-Planck Institut für Astrophysik, Garching, Germany)Google Scholar
Schmidtke, P.C., McGrath, T.K., Cowley, A.P., Frattare, L.M., 1993, PASP, 105, 863 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van den Heuvel, E.P.J., Bhattacharya, D., Nomoto, K., Rappaport, S.A., 1992, A&A, 262, 97 Google Scholar