MV LYR : spectrophotometric properties of minimum light : or on MV LYR off.
Abstract
The cataclysmic variable MV Lyrae is one of the brightest members of its class. Its photographic magnitude normally varies irregularly between 12.0 and 14.0. The long-term behavior of its light curve makes it also one of the most unusual of the cataclysmic variables. MV Lyr occasionally fades by 5 magnitudes or more, to magnitude 18.0, remaining faint for as long as a year and a half. Three such minima have been observed. A description is presented of observations of MV Lyr which consist of spectrophotometry and high speed photometry obtained in 1980 and of high speed photometry obtained in 1969 when MV Lyr was at maximum light. It is shown that the 1979-1980 minimum was caused by a reduction in mass transfer from the M5 V star to its white dwarf companion with a consequent fading of the accretion disk around the white dwarf, and that the mass transfer terminated altogether during part of July 1980.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 1981
- DOI:
- 10.1086/159506
- Bibcode:
- 1981ApJ...251..611R
- Keywords:
-
- Late Stars;
- Stellar Mass Accretion;
- Stellar Mass Ejection;
- Stellar Spectrophotometry;
- Variable Stars;
- White Dwarf Stars;
- Light Curve;
- Mass Transfer;
- Periodic Variations;
- Radiant Flux Density;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Stellar Luminosity;
- Astrophysics