On the mass transfer in AE Aquarii

Abstract

The observed properties of the close binary AE Aqr indicate that the mass transfer in this system operates via the Roche lobe overflow mechanism, but the material transferred from the normal companion is neither accreted onto the surface of the white dwarf nor stored in a disk around its magnetosphere. As previously shown, such a situation can be realized if the white dwarf operates as a propeller. At the same time, the efficiency of the propeller action by the white dwarf is insufficient to explain the rapid braking of the white dwarf, which implies that the spin-down power is in excess of the bolometric luminosity of the system. To avoid this problem we have simulated the mass-transfer process in AE Aqr assuming that the observed braking of the white dwarf is governed by a pulsar-like spin-down mechanism. We show that the expected H_alpha Doppler tomogram in this case resembles the tomogram observed from the system. We find that the agreement between the simulated and the observed tomograms is rather good provided the mean value of the mass-transfer rate <\dot{M}> ~5x10^16 g/s. Three spatially separated sources of H_alpha emission can be distinguished within this approach. The structure of the tomogram depends on the relative contributions of these sources to the H_alpha emission and is expected to vary from night to night.

12 pages, 3 figures (6 eps files). Published in A&A. The paper with high resolution images can be downloaded from http://urania.it.nuigalway.ie/papers/ae_aqr.ps.gz

References in corpus (8)

• The central engine of gamma-ray bursters
• AE Aquarii: how CVs descend from supersoft binaries
• A Study of the X-Ray Emission of Magnetic Cataclysmic Variable Ae Aquarii
• Fireball Models for Flares in AE Aquarii
• On the Rapid Spin-down and Low Luminosity Pulsed Emission from AE Aquarii
• Can the 33s pulsations observed from AE Aquarii be explained in terms of accretion onto the white dwarf surface?
• On the circularly polarized optical emission from AE Aquarii
• Can the rapid braking of the white dwarf in AE Aquarii be explained in terms of the gravitational wave emitter mechanism?

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• Features of the Matter Flows in the Peculiar Cataclysmic Variable AE Aquarii
• Comparisons of MHD Propeller Model with Observations of Cataclysmic Variable AE Aqr
• Resolving dichotomy in compact objects through continuous gravitational waves observation
• On a Site of X-ray Emission in AE Aquarii
• Simultaneous UBVRI observations of the cataclysmic variable AE Aquarii: temperature and mass of fireballs
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• Features of the mass transfer in magnetic cataclysmic variables with fast-rotating white dwarfs
• High-dispersion spectroscopy of AE Aquarii -- II. Evidence of material orbiting the primary star