Ultraviolet light curves of the dwarf novae U GEM and VW Hyd.
Abstract
The optical light curves of many dwarf novae show a prominent hump. This hump is attributed to a hot spot located where the gas stream from the cool secondary star strikes the accretion disk around the white dwarf primary. In the present investigation, the energy distribution of the hot spot is obtained from the amplitude of the hump in different wavelength regions. The color temperature of the hot spot is derived, and the temperature and optical thickness for thermal free-free emission models for the spot is discussed. The nature of the disk is studied by comparing its UV-optical energy distribution with computed accretion disk models. The ultraviolet light curves of two quiescent dwarf novae, U Gem and VW Hyi is derived by combining Astronomical Netherlands Satellite (ANS) photometry from several different epochs.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 1982
- DOI:
- 10.1086/160415
- Bibcode:
- 1982ApJ...262..244W
- Keywords:
-
- Dwarf Novae;
- Light Curve;
- Spectral Energy Distribution;
- Stellar Mass Accretion;
- Ultraviolet Spectra;
- Visible Spectrum;
- Astronomical Netherlands Satellite;
- Optical Thickness;
- Stellar Color;
- Stellar Mass Ejection;
- Stellar Models;
- Stellar Spectrophotometry;
- Stellar Temperature;
- Thermal Emission;
- Astrophysics