TESS observations of TX Col: Rapidly varying accretion flow

Abstract

Using the first long-term photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, we have carried out a detailed time-resolved timing analysis of an intermediate polar TX Col. The power spectra of almost 52 days continuous time-series data reveal the orbital period of $5.691\pm 0.006$ hr, spin period of $1909.5\pm 0.2$ s, and beat period of $2105.76\pm 0.25$ s, which is consistent with the earlier results. We have also found the presence of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) for a few days with a period of 5850-5950 s, which appears to be due to the beating of the Keplerian period with the spin period of the white dwarf. The continuous data allowed us to look thoroughly at the day-wise evolution of the system's accretion geometry. We report here that the TX Col changes its accretion mechanism even on a time-scale of one day, confirming its variable disk-overflow accretion nature. For the majority of the time, it was found to be disk-overflow system with stream-fed dominance, however, pure disk-fed and pure stream-fed accretions cannot be ruled out during the observations.

arXiv comment13 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (5)

• The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
• The Secondary Star in Cataclysmic Variables and Low Mass X-ray Binaries
• White dwarf masses in intermediate polars observed with the Suzaku satellite
• Accretion disks in interacting binaries: Simulations of the stream-disk impact
• The Discovery of a Persistent Quasi-Periodic Oscillation in the Intermediate Polar TX Col

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Quasi-periodic oscillations in the TESS light curve of TX Col, a diskless intermediate polar on the precipice of forming an accretion disk
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• Kepler K2 and TESS observations of two magnetic cataclysmic variables: The new asynchronous polar SDSS J084617.11+245344.1 and Paloma
• Investigating the low-flux states in six Intermediate Polars
• V515 And: An Intermediate Polar in the Period Gap Exhibiting Outbursts