The Accretion Process in Extremely High Magnetic Field Polars

We propose a triggered observation of one of the highest magnetic field polars known which escaped XMM-Newton so far. Utilizing the broad spectral range covered by XMM-Newton including the OM, we will simultaneously determine the energy content of the three cooling channels of the post-shock accretion plasma: cyclotron radiation in the UV, plasma radiation in hard X-rays and re-processed radiation in soft X-rays. We will confront our observations with state-of-art models and study quantitatively the energy balance of the cooling plasma as a function of white dwarf mass, accretion rate and magnetic field strength. Our targets, all with magnetic fields in excess of 100 MG give access to a rather unexplored parameter regime.