Localised thermonuclear bursts from accreting magnetic white dwarfs

Abstract

Nova explosions are caused by global thermonuclear runaways triggered in the surface layers of accreting white dwarfs. It has been predicted that localised thermonuclear bursts on white dwarfs can also take place, similar to Type I X-ray bursts observed in accreting neutron stars. Unexplained rapid bursts from the binary system TV Columbae, in which mass is accreted onto a moderately-strong magnetised white dwarf from a low-mass companion, have been observed on several occasions in the past $\approx 40$ years. During these bursts the optical/UV luminosity increases by a factor of $>3$ in less than an hour and fades over $\approx 10$ hours. Fast outflows have been observed in UV spectral lines, with velocities $>3500$ km s${}^{-1}$, comparable to the escape velocity from the white dwarf surface. Here we report on optical bursts observed in TV Columbae as well as in two additional accreting systems, EI Ursae Majoris and ASASSN-19bh. The bursts have a total energy $\approx 10^{-6}$ those of classical nova explosions ("micronovae"), and bear a strong resemblance to Type I X-ray bursts. We exclude accretion or stellar magnetic reconnection events as their origin and suggest thermonuclear runaway events in magnetically-confined accretion columns as a viable explanation.

11 pages, 7 figures. Submitted on 4 October 2021. Accepted for publication in Nature on 1 February 2022

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