Extensive photometry of the intermediate polar MU Cam: detection of a spin period change
Abstract
Intermediate polars with known rates of spin period changes are not numerous because such tasks require measurements performed for a long time. To measure a spin period change, MU Cam is a good candidate because it has a spin oscillation with a large amplitude enabling measurements with high precision. Fortunately, in the past the spin period of MU Cam was measured with high precision. To measure the spin period anew, in 2014-2015 we performed extensive photometric observations of MU Cam, spanning a total duration of 208 h within 46 nights. We found that the spin, sideband and orbital periods are equal to 1187.16245±0.00047 s, 1276.3424±0.0022 s and 4.71942±0.00016 h, respectively. Comparing the measured spin period with the spin period of MU Cam in the past, we detected the spin period change with dP/{d}t=-(2.17±0.10)× 10^{-10}. This rate of the spin period change was not stable and varied in a time scale of years. During four nights in 2014 April-May MU Cam was fainter than usual by 0.8 mag, and the amplitude of the sideband oscillation was five times larger, denoting significant fraction of disc-overflow accretion. The sideband oscillation showed a double-peaked pulse profile in the normal brightness state. When the star brightness was decreased by 0.8 mag, the sideband oscillation showed a single-peaked pulse profile. In contrast, the spin pulse, which was quasi-sinusoidal, remained remarkably stable both in profile and in amplitude. Moreover, the spin pulse was also remarkably stable in a time scale of years and even decades. MU Cam is of great interest because it represents a distinctive object with a large and unstable rate of the spin period change and exhibits a distinctive behaviour of the pulse profiles.
- Publication:
-
Astrophysics and Space Science
- Pub Date:
- August 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s10509-016-2859-0
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1607.02577
- Bibcode:
- 2016Ap&SS.361..273K
- Keywords:
-
- Stars: individual: MU Cam;
- Novae;
- cataclysmic variables;
- Stars: oscillations;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 12 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science