The Detection of Discrete Cyclotron Emission Features in Phase-Resolved Optical Spectroscopy of V1500 Cygni

Abstract

We have obtained phase-resolved optical spectroscopy of the old nova, and asynchronous polar V1500 Cyg. These new data reveal discrete cyclotron humps from two different strength magnetic fields. One region has B = 72 MG, while the other has B ~ 105 MG. With the detection of these features, we revisit the optical/near-IR light curves presented in Harrison & Campbell (2016), and find that the large photometric excesses observed in those data are fully reconcilable with cyclotron emission. These results, when combined with the X-ray observations that appeared to have maxima that repeated on the orbital period, imply that V1500 Cyg has reverted back to a synchronous polar. Using existing theory, we show that the strong field strengths found here can explain the rapid spin down time.

Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

References in corpus (1)

• Abundance Derivations for the Secondary Stars in Cataclysmic Variables from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Cited by in corpus (4)

• SDSS J134441.83+204408.3: A highly asynchronous, short-period magnetic cataclysmic variable with a 56 MG field strength
• A spectroscopic, photometric, polarimetric and radio study of the eclipsing polar UZ Fornacis: the first simultaneous SALT and MeerKAT observations
• Current and secular accretion rates of EX Hydrae
• Multiwavelength Characterization of a New Magnetic Cataclysmic Variable 2CXO J050740.7-091337