Spitzer Space Telescope Observations of Circumbinary Dust Disks around Polars
Abstract
We present Spitzer Space Telescope IRAC photometry of the magnetic cataclysmic variables EF Eri, MR Ser, VV Pup, V834 Cen, GG Leo and V347 Pav. When we combine our results with the 2MASS data, we find that at least five of the polars have flux densities in the mid-IR in excess of the emission expected from the stellar components alone. We are unable to model this mid-IR excess with cyclotron emission, but we can recreate the observed spectral energy distributions with the inclusion of a simple circumbinary dust disk model. Importantly, we find that the masses of our modelled disks are approximately 12 orders of magnitude lower than required to significantly affect CV evolution. The accretion disk-less polars are ideal places to search for these disks, since the luminous accretion disk in most CVs would drown out the faint IR signature of the cooler, dimmer circumbinary disks.
Additional Information
© 2007 Astronomical Society of the Pacific. This work is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by NASA through an award issued by JPL/Caltech. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the Univ. of Mass. and IPAC/Caltech, funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation. We acknowledge with thanks the variable star observations from the AAVSO International Database, contributed by observers worldwide.Attached Files
Published - Brinkworth2007p839515Th_European_Workshop_On_White_Dwarfs_Proceedings.pdf
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:7ffa4c4173092834f80f3e9167358bad
|
149.6 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 19541
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20100820-082636250
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- Created
-
2010-08-20Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2019-12-13Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
- Series Name
- ASP Conference Series
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 372