Secular evolution of magnetic cataclysmic variables.
Abstract
The observed period distribution of magnetic cataclysmic variables is approached from the standpoint of current theories of the secular evolution of these systems, and especially the formation of the period gap, under conditions in which the white dwarfs exhibit magnetic moments that are either lower than 10 to the 30th G cu cm, or in the 10 to the 33rd-10 to the 34th G cu cm range. The absence of intermediate polars with orbital periods of less than 2 hr precludes fields for them that are systematically weaker than those of the AM Her systems, unless magnetic binaries never evolve across the period gap and the field distribution is like that envisioned for orbital periods of less than 2 hr. The spin history of EX Hya is congruent with these determinations.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- March 1985
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/213.2.181
- Bibcode:
- 1985MNRAS.213..181K
- Keywords:
-
- Cataclysmic Variables;
- Secular Variations;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Stellar Magnetic Fields;
- White Dwarf Stars;
- Cyclotron Radiation;
- Electromagnetic Interactions;
- Magnetic Stars;
- Mass Transfer;
- Optical Polarization;
- Stellar Spectrophotometry;
- Astrophysics