Outburst Photometry of the Eclipsing Dwarf Nova GY Cancri

Abstract

We observed the ROSAT-selected eclipsing dwarf nova GY Cnc (=RX J0909.8+1849) during the 2001 November outburst. We refined the orbital period to be 0.17544251(5) d. The fading portion of the outburst was indistinguishable from those of typical dwarf novae with similar orbital periods. However, the signature of orbital humps (or a hot spot) was far less prominently observed in the orbital light curves and eclipse profiles than in usual dwarf novae with similar orbital periods. The combination of low frequency of outbursts and the apparent lack of slowly rising, long outbursts in GY Cnc is difficult to reconcile within the standard framework of dwarf novae. We suspect that GY Cnc may be the first above-the-gap counterpart of unusual eclipsing dwarf novae HT Cas and IR Com.

6 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan

References in corpus (1)

• Dwarf Nova-like Outburst of Short Period Intermediate Polar HT Camelopardalis

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Variable Star Network: World Center for Transient Object Astronomy and Variable Stars
• ULTRACAM photometry of the eclipsing cataclysmic variables GY Cnc, IR Com and HT Cas
• Hunting For Eclipses: High Speed Observations of Cataclysmic Variables
• Multiple time scales in cataclysmic binaries. The low-field magnetic dwarf nova DO Draconis
• Photometric study of southern SU UMa-type dwarf novae and candidates -- III: NSV 10934, MM Sco, AB Nor, CAL 86
• Grazing Eclipsing Dwarf Nova CW Monocerotis: Dwarf Nova-Type Outburst in a Possible Intermediate Polar?