2002/01/29 by C. Hellier, Coel Hellier, Hellier, Coel
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #High-pressure geophysics and materials #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0201475
10 pages, 6 figures, To appear in 'The Physics of Cataclysmic Variables and Related Objects', Goettingen, August 5-10, 2001; includes low-res figures to reduce size
arxiv created 2002/01/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
I review the observational evidence for stream-fed accretion in intermediate polars. Recent work on the discless system V2400 Oph confirms the pole-flipping model of stream-fed accretion, but this applies only to a minority of the flow. The bulk of the flow is in the form of blobs circling the white dwarf, a state which might have been a precursor to disc formation in other IPs. I also discuss work on the systems with anomalously long spin periods, V1025 Cen and EX Hya. There are arguments both for and against stream-fed accretion in V1025 Cen, and further work is necessary before reaching a conclusion about this system.