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A VLA Survey of Magnetic Cataclysmic Variable Stars
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2018
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Cataclysmic Variables (CVs) are close binaries containing a white dwarf primary and a Rochelobe filling red dwarf secondary. In magnetic CVs (MCVs) the white dwarfs have magnetic fields that are sufficiently strong (106 – 108 Gauss) to direct the accretion flow onto the surface of the primary. MCVs are divided into the lower field intermediate polars (IPs) and the higher field polars. Typically, IPs have accretion disks that are disrupted in the center and magnetically channelled flow onto the poles. Polars are diskless, an accretion stream flowing from the inner Lagrangian point impacts directly onto one or both magnetic poles. In addition, polars tend to have white dwarfs which rotate in synchronism with the binary orbit, while IPs have white dwarfs which rotate faster than the binary period. There are a few rare exceptions to this characterization, such as the slightly asynchronous polars and the stream-fed IPs.
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