Roche tomography of cataclysmic variables - VIII: The irradiated and spotted dwarf nova, SS Cygni

Abstract

We present the results of our spectroscopic study of the dwarf nova SS Cygni, using Roche tomography to map the stellar surface and derive the system parameters. Given that this technique takes into account the inhomogeneous brightness distribution on the surface of the secondary star, our derived parameters are (in principle) the most robust yet found for this system. Furthermore, our surface maps reveal that the secondary star is highly spotted, with strongly asymmetric irradiation on the inner hemisphere. Moreover, by constructing Doppler tomograms of several Balmer emission lines, we find strong asymmetric emission from the irradiated secondary star, and an asymmetric accretion disc that exhibits spiral structures.

10 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• Detection of highly correlated optical and X-ray variations in SS Cygni with Tomo-e Gozen and NICER
• The light curve simulations of the 2021 anomalous event in SS Cygni
• Epicyclic frequencies of spheroidal stars with non-uniform density