No Arabic abstract
We present an analysis of all available time-resolved photometry from the literature and new light curves obtained in 2013-2014 for the old nova RR Pictoris. The well-known hump light curve phased with the orbital period reveals significant variations over the last 42 years in shape, amplitude and other details which apparently are caused by long-term variations in the disc structure. In addition we found evidence for the presence of superhumps in 2007, with the same period (~9% longer than the orbital period), as reported earlier by other authors from observations in 2005. Possibly, superhumps arise quickly in RR Pic, but are sporadic events, because in all the other observing runs analysed no significant superhump signal was detected. We also determined an actual version of the Stolz--Schoembs relation between superhump period and orbital period, analysing separately dwarf novae, classical novae and nova-like stars, and conclude that this relation is of general validity for all superhumpers among the cataclysmic variables (CVs), in spite of small but significant differences among the sub-types mentioned above. We emphasize the importance of such a study in context with the still open question of the interrelation between the different sub-classes of CVs, crucial for our understanding of the long-term CV evolution.
The ex-nova RR Pic presents a periodic hump in its light curve which is considered to refer to its orbital period. Analyzing all available epochs of these hump maxima in the literature, and combining them with those from new light curves obtained in 2013 and 2014, we establish an unique cycle count scheme valid during the past 50 years, and derive an ephemeris with the orbital period 0.145025959(15) days. The O - C diagram of this linear ephemeris reveals systematic deviations which could have different causes. One of them could be a light-travel-time effect caused by the presence of a hypothetical third body near the star/brown dwarf mass limit, with an orbital period of the order of 70 years. We also examine the difficulty of the problematic of detecting sub-stellar or planetary companions of close red-dwarf white-dwarf binaries (including cataclysmic variables), and discuss other possible mechanisms responsible for the observed deviations in O - C. For RR Pic, we propose strategies in order to solve this question by new observations.
Many RR Lyrae stars show long-term variations of their pulsation period, some of them in a cyclic way. Such behaviour can be attributed to the light-travel time effect (LTTE) caused by an unseen companion. Solutions of the LTTE often suggest very eccentric orbits and minimal mass of the companion on the order of several solar masses, thus, in the black hole range. We discuss the possibility of the occurrence of the RR Lyr-black hole pairs and on the case of Z CVn demonstrate that the LTTE hypothesis can be false in some of the binary candidates.
A didactic introduction to current thinking on some aspects of the solar dynamo is given for geophysicists and planetary scientists.
We analyze long-cadence Kepler K2 observations of AR Sco from 2014, along with survey photometry obtained between 2005 and 2016 by the Catalina Real-Time Sky Survey and the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae. The K2 data show the orbital modulation to have been fairly stable during the 78 days of observations, but we detect aperiodic deviations from the average waveform with an amplitude of ~2% on a timescale of a few days. A comparison of the K2 data with the survey photometry reveals that the orbital waveform gradually changed between 2005 and 2010, with the orbital maximum shifting to earlier phases. We compare these photometric variations with proposed models of this unusual system.
Context. RR Gem is one of the few Blazhko RR Lyrae that has photometric observations available extended enough to study the long-term courses of its pulsation and modulation properties in detail. Aims. We investigate the pulsation and modulation properties and the relations between them in RR Gem using photometric observations from the past 70 years in order to gain further insight into the nature of the Blazhko modulation. Methods. We studied the photographic, photoelectric, and CCD light curves obtained at the Konkoly Observatory and other authors published maxima observations. Detailed analysis of the light curves, maximum brightness, and O-C data are carried out. Results. RR Gem showed modulation most of the time it was observed. The modulation amplitude showed strong variations from the undetectable level (less than 0.04 mag in maximum brightness) to about 0.20 mag. The amplitudes of the amplitude and phase modulations showed parallel changes, thus the total power of the modulation have changed during the past 70 years. Parallel changes in the pulsation and modulation periods occur with a d P_mod / d P_puls = 1.6 +/- 0.8 * 10^3 ratio. We also detected 0.05-0.1 mag changes in the mean maximum brightness and mean pulsation amplitude.