Boundary layers in cataclysmic variables : the HEAO 1 X-ray constraints.
Abstract
X-ray observations of novae, nova-like variables, and dwarf novae in outburst have shown them to be weaker X-ray sources than expected from models attributing the X-ray emission to a boundary layer formed between the white dwarf surface and an accretion disk. This paper provides constraints on the nature of boundary layers in novae, based on the lack of detections of novae in the HEAO 1 soft X-ray survey. It is shown that hard X-rays from novae are unlikely to be produced in a boundary layer. Estimates of temperatures and column densities are given for optically thick boundary layers in novae. The applicability of these results to other subclasses of cataclysmic variables (CV) and their implications for the nature of boundary layers and circumstellar gas in CVs are discussed
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- March 1984
- DOI:
- 10.1086/161792
- Bibcode:
- 1984ApJ...278..278J
- Keywords:
-
- Boundary Layers;
- Novae;
- X Rays;
- Heao 1;
- Observation;
- Temperature Measurement;
- Astrophysics