The Mass of the White Dwarf in the Recurrent Nova CI Aquilae

If recurrent novae (RNe) are progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia), their white dwarfs (WD) must have masses close to the Chandrasekhar limit. The most reliable means of determining WD masses in RNe is dynamically, via radial-velocity and rotational-broadening measurements of the companion star. Such measurements require the system to be both eclipsing and to show absorption features from the secondary star. The only other reliable RNe mass estimate is for U Sco, which has a WD mass of 1.55 +/- 0.24 M_⊙ (Thoroughgood et al. 2001).

We present new time-resolved, intermediate-resolution spectroscopy of the eclipsing RN CI Aql during quiescence. We find the mass of the WD to be 1.02 +/- 0.08 M_⊙ and the mass of the secondary star to be 2.41 +/- 0.2 M_⊙. We estimate the radius of the secondary to be 2.10 +/- 0.07 R_⊙. The high mass ratio of q=2.37 +/- 0.15 and the high secondary star mass suggests that mass transfer occurs on a thermal timescale. We suggest that CI Aql is evolving into a supersoft x-ray source, and ultimately will explode as an SN Ia.