2002/06/17 by Christopher W. Mauche, Mauche, Christopher W.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0206290
23 pages including 1 table and 9 encapsulated postscript figures; LaTeX format, uses aastex.cls; accepted on 2002 June 17 for publication in The Astrophysical Journal
arxiv created 2002/06/17 · openalex publication_date 2002/06/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
(abridged) The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) satellite was employed in 1999 February to acquire phase-resolved EUV photometric and spectroscopic observations of the AM Her-type cataclysmic variable V834 Centauri. Although we do not understand the EUV light curves in detail, they are explained qualitatively by a simple model of accretion from a ballistic stream along the field lines of a tilted magnetic dipole centered on the white dwarf. The 75-140 Angstrom EUVE spectra are well described by either a blackbody or a pure-H stellar atmosphere absorbed by a neutral hydrogen column density, but constraints on the size of the EUV emission region and its UV brightness favor the blackbody interpretation with temperature kT ~ 17.6 eV, hydrogen column density NH ~ 7.4x1019 cm-2, fractional emitting area f ~ 10-3, and luminosity Lsoft ~ 7.2x1032 (d/100 pc)2 erg s-1. The ratio of the EUV to X-ray luminosities is Lsoft/Lhard ~ 40, signaling that some mechanism other than irradiation (e.g., blob heating) dominates energy input into the accretion spot.