The accretion flow in the discless intermediate polar V2400 Ophiuchi
Abstract
RXTE observations confirm that the X-ray light curve of V2400 Oph is pulsed at the beat cycle, as expected in a discless intermediate polar. There are no X-ray modulations at the orbital or spin cycles, but optical line profiles vary with all three cycles. We construct a model for line-profile variations in a discless accretor, based on the idea that the accretion stream flips from one magnetic pole to the other, and show that this accounts for the observed behaviour over the spin and beat cycles. The minimal variability over the orbital cycle implies that (1) V2400 Oph is at an inclination of only ~10°, and (2) much of the accretion flow is not in a coherent stream, but is circling the white dwarf, possibly as a ring of denser, diamagnetic blobs. We discuss the light that this sheds on disc formation in intermediate polars.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- March 2002
- DOI:
- 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05199.x
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0201473
- Bibcode:
- 2002MNRAS.331..407H
- Keywords:
-
- accretion;
- accretion discs;
- binaries: close;
- stars: individual: V2400 Oph;
- novae;
- cataclysmic variables;
- X-rays: stars;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 10 pages, 12 figures, To appear in MNRAS, includes low-res figures to reduce size