The Exotic Helium Variable PG 1346+082
Abstract
The results of an extensive study of the blue object PG 1346 + 082, which is both a photometric and a spectroscopic variable, are presented. The system spans the B magnitude range 13.6-17.2, is brighter than m(pg) of about 14.0 roughly 74 percent of the time, and has a photometric quasi-period of four to five days. The rapid photometric flickering at minimum light is identified as the signature of mass transfer in a binary sytsem, and the He I emission at minimum light as indicating the presence of an accretion disk. The inability to detect high-energy X-rays, the absence of the high-excitation lines of He II in the optical spectrum, and the complete absence of hydrogen in the spectrum show that PG 1346 + 082 is an interacting binary white dwarf system. This identification lends strong support to the interacting twin-degenerate interpretation for AM CVn. The outbursts of the system may be similar in physical origin to dwarf novae outbursts.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- February 1987
- DOI:
- 10.1086/165014
- Bibcode:
- 1987ApJ...313..757W
- Keywords:
-
- Astronomical Photometry;
- Binary Stars;
- Helium;
- Variable Stars;
- White Dwarf Stars;
- Absorption Spectra;
- Color-Magnitude Diagram;
- Light Curve;
- Spectral Line Width;
- Stellar Spectrophotometry;
- Ultraviolet Astronomy;
- Astrophysics;
- STARS: BINARIES;
- STARS: INDIVIDUAL ALPHANUMERIC: PG 1346;
- 082;
- STARS: VARIABLES;
- STARS: WHITE DWARFS;
- ULTRAVIOLET: SPECTRA