The Detection of Discrete Cyclotron Emission Features in Phase-Resolved Optical Spectroscopy of V1500 Cygni [SSA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1711.01220


We have obtained phase-resolved optical spectroscopy of the old nova, and asynchronous polar V1500 Cyg. These new data reveal discrete cyclotron humps from two different strength magnetic fields. One region has B = 72 MG, while the other has B ~ 105 MG. With the detection of these features, we revisit the optical/near-IR light curves presented in Harrison & Campbell (2016), and find that the large photometric excesses observed in those data are fully reconcilable with cyclotron emission. These results, when combined with the X-ray observations that appeared to have maxima that repeated on the orbital period, imply that V1500 Cyg has reverted back to a synchronous polar. Using existing theory, we show that the strong field strengths found here can explain the rapid spin down time.

Read this paper on arXiv…

T. Harrison and R. Campbell
Mon, 6 Nov 17
49/53

Comments: Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society