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Extension of the Radio Spectrum of AE Aqr to the Sub-millimetric Range

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Meil Abada-Simon ,
Tim S. Bastian ,
Jay A. Bookbinder ,
Monique Aubier ,
Gordon Bromage ,
George A. Dulk  and
Alain Lecacheux
Meil Abada-Simon
Affiliation:
Sterrekundig Instituut, Postbus 80000, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands Observatoire de Paris, 92190 Meudon, France
Tim S. Bastian
Affiliation:
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
Jay A. Bookbinder
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02 138, USA
Monique Aubier
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, 92190 Meudon, France Université Paris6, France
Gordon Bromage
Affiliation:
Lancashire Polytechnic, Physics Department, Preston, PR1 6AD, UK
George A. Dulk
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, 92190 Meudon, France
Alain Lecacheux
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, 92190 Meudon, France

Extract

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AE Aquarii is a magnetic cataclysmic variable containing a white dwarf and a K3-K7 star which lies slightly above the main sequence. The white dwarf is the most rapidly rotating known (Prot ≃ 33.08 s, Patterson 1979), and it is the most strongly asynchronous with its revolution (Porb = 9.88 hr). The white dwarf accretes matter from the K star, which approximately fills the Roche lobe. AE Aqr exhibits flares in the soft X-rays, the ultra-violet, and almost continuously in the visible and the radio regimes. Rapid optical and TeV γ-ray bursts have also been discovered, which are modulated with the period of the white dwarf and at half of this period (de Jager & Meintjes 1993). This modulation, also found in X-rays, is interpreted as the accretion of matter onto the white dwarf’s magnetic poles. The strength of the white dwarf’s magnetic field is not well-determined, it is estimated to be ∼ 6.104 - 105 G (Lamb & Patterson 1983, Cropper 1986) at the white dwarf’s surface. Eracleous et al. (1994) recently suggested that the magnetic dipole axis lies close to the equatorial plane (∼ 20°). De Jager et al. (1994) discovered a rapid spin down of the white dwarf leading to a spin down power which exceeds the accretion power. They suggest that a significant fraction of the spin down power may be converted to the acceleration of particles, which may explain the radio and the γ-ray emissions. Both the characteristics of the optical flares and the existence of TeV γ-rays suggest a relation with the non-thermal radio flares.

Type
Cataclysmic Variables: Eruptions and Flickering
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 151: Flares and Flashes , 1995 , pp. 268 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © Springer-Verlag 1995

References

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