No Arabic abstract
High-resolution spectroscopy has revealed large concentrations of CNO and sometimes other intermediate-mass elements in the shells ejected during nova outbursts, suggesting that the solar composition material transferred from the secondary mixes with the outermost layers of the underlying white dwarf during the thermonuclear runaway. Multidimensional simulations have shown that Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities provide self-enrichment of the accreted envelope with material from the outermost layers of the white dwarf, at levels that agree with observations. However, the Eulerian and time-explicit nature of most multidimensional codes used to date and the overwhelming computational load have limited their applicability, and no multidimensional simulation has been conducted for a full nova cycle. This paper explores a new methodology that combines 1-D and 3-D simulations. The early stages of the explosion (i.e., mass-accretion and initiation of the runaway) have been computed with the 1-D hydrodynamic code SHIVA. When convection extends throughout the entire envelope, the structures for each model were mapped into 3-D Cartesian grids and were subsequently followed with the multidimensional code FLASH. Two key physical quantities were extracted from the 3-D simulations and subsequently implemented into SHIVA, which was used to complete the simulation through the late expansion and ejection stages: the time-dependent amount of mass dredged-up from the outer white dwarf layers, and the time-dependent convective velocity profile throughout the envelope. More massive envelopes than those reported from previous models with pre-enrichment have been found. This results in more violent outbursts, characterized by higher peak temperatures and greater ejected masses, with metallicity enhancements in agreement with observations.
Novae have been reported as transients for more than two thousand years. Their bright optical outbursts are the result of explosive nuclear burning of gas accreted from a binary companion onto a white dwarf. Novae containing a white dwarf close to the Chandrasekhar mass limit and accreting at a high rate are potentially the unknown progenitors of the type Ia supernovae used to measure the acceleration of the Universe. Swift X-ray observations have radically transformed our view of novae by providing dense monitoring throughout the outburst, revealing new phenomena in the super-soft X-rays from the still-burning white dwarf such as early extreme variability and half- to one-minute timescale quasi-periodic oscillations. The distinct evolution of this emission from the harder X-ray emission due to ejecta shocks has been clearly delineated. Soft X-ray observations allow the mass of the white dwarf, the mass burned and the mass ejected to be estimated. In combination with observations at other wavelengths, including the high spectral resolution observations of the large X-ray observatories, high resolution optical and radio imaging, radio monitoring, optical spectroscopy, and the detection of GeV gamma-ray emission from recent novae, models of the explosion have been tested and developed. I review nine novae for which Swift has made a significant impact; these have shown the signature of the components in the interacting binary system in addition to the white dwarf: the re-formed accretion disk, the companion star and its stellar wind.
I report new orbital periods (P) for 13 classical novae, based on light curves from TESS, AAVSO, and other public archives. These new nova periods now constitute nearly one-seventh of all known nova periods. Five of my systems have P>1 day, which doubles the number of such systems that must have evolved companion stars. (This is simply because ground-based time series have neither the coverage nor the stability required to discover these small-amplitude long periods.) V1016 Sgr has a rare P below the period gap, and suddenly becomes useful for current debates on evolution of novae. Five of the novae (FM Cir, V399 Del, V407 Lup, YZ Ret, and V549 Vel) have the orbital modulations in the tail of the eruption after the transition phase. Soon after the transition, YZ Ret shows a unique set of aperiodic diminishing oscillations, plus YZ Ret shows two highly-significant transient periods, 1.1% and 4.5% longer than the orbital period, much like for the superhump phenomenon. I also report an optical 591.27465 second periodicity for V407 Lup, which is coherent and must be tied to the white dwarf spin period. The new orbital periods in days are 0.1883907 +- 0.0000048 for V1405 Cas, 3.4898 +- 0.0072 for FM Cir, 0.162941 +- 0.000060 for V339 Del, 3.513 +- 0.020 for V407 Lup, 1.32379 +- 0.00048 for V2109 Oph, 3.21997 +- 0.00039 for V392 Per, 0.1628714 +- 0.0000110 for V598 Pup, 0.1324539 +- 0.0000098 for YZ Ret, 0.07579635 +- 0.00000017 for V1016 Sgr, 7.101 +- 0.016 for V5583 Sgr, 0.61075 +- 0.00071 for V1534 Sco, 0.40319 +- 0.00005 for V549 Vel, and 0.146501 +- 0.000058 for NQ Vul.
Cataclysmic Variables (CVs) and Symbiotic Binaries are close (or not so close) binary star systems which contain both a white dwarf (WD) primary and a larger cooler secondary star that typically fills its Roche Lobe. The cooler star is losing mass through the inner Lagrangian point of the binary and a fraction of this material is accreted by the WD. Here we report on our hydrodynamic studies of the thermonuclear runaway (TNR) in the accreted material that ends in a Classical Nova explosion. We have followed the evolution of the TNRs on both carbon-oxygen (CO) and oxygen-neon (ONe) WDs. We report on 3 studies in this paper. First, simulations in which we accrete only solar matter using NOVA (our 1-D, fully implicit, hydro code). Second, we use MESA for similar studies in which we accrete only Solar matter and compare the results. Third, we accrete solar matter until the TNR is ongoing and then switch the composition in the accreted layers to a mixed composition: either 25% WD and 75% solar or 50% WD and 50% Solar matter. We find that the amount of accreted material is inversely proportional to the initial 12C abundance (as expected). Thus, accreting solar matter results in a larger amount of accreted material to fuel the outburst; much larger than in earlier studies where a mixed composition was assumed from the beginning of the simulation. Our most important result is that all these simulations eject significantly less mass than accreted and, therefore, the WD is growing in mass toward the Chandrasekhar Limit.
Nova Mon 2012 was the first classical nova to be detected as a high energy $gamma$-ray transient, by Fermi-LAT, before its optical discovery. We study a time sequence of high resolution optical echelle spectra (Nordic Optical Telescope) and contemporaneous NOT, STIS UV, and CHIRON echelle spectra (Nov 20/21/22). We use [O III] and H$beta$ line fluxs to constrain the properties of the ejecta. We derive the structure from the optical and UV line profiles and compare our measured line fluxes for with predictions using Cloudy with abundances from other ONe novae. Mon 2012 is confirmed as an ONe nova. We find E(B-V)=0.85$pm$0.05 and hydrogen column density $approx 5times 10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$. The corrected continuum luminosity is nearly the same in the entire observed energy range as V1974 Cyg, V382 Mon, and Nova LMC 2000 at the same epoch after outburst. The distance, about 3.6 kpc, is quite similar to V1974 Cyg. The line profiles can be modeled using an axisymmetric bipolar geometry for the ejecta with various inclinations of the axis to the line of sight, 60 le i le 80 degrees, an opening angle of approx$70 deg, inner radius $Delta R/R(t)approx 0.4$ for permitted lines and less filled for forbidden lines. The filling factor $fapprox 0.1-0.3$ implying M(ejecta) $leq 6times 10^{-5}$M$_odot$. The ONe novae appear to comprise a single physical class with bipolar high mass ejecta, similarly enhanced abundances, and a common spectroscopic evolution within a narrow range of luminosities. The detected $gamma$-ray emission may be a generic phenomenon, common to all ONe novae, possibly to all classical novae, and connected with acceleration and emission processes within the ejecta (abstract severely truncated).
Novae are the observational manifestations of thermonuclear runaways on the surface of accreting white dwarfs (WDs). Although novae are an ubiquitous phenomenon, their properties at low metallicity are not well understood. Using the publicly-available stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), we model the evolution of accreting carbon-oxygen WDs and consider models which accrete matter with metallicity Z=0.02 or $10^{-4}$. We consider both models without mixing and with matter enriched by CO-elements assuming that mixing occurs in the process of accretion (with mixing fraction 0.25). We present and contrast ignition mass, ejected mass, recurrence period and maximum luminosity of novae for different WD masses and accretion rates for these metallicities and mixing cases. We find that models with Z = 0.02 have ignition masses and recurrence periods smaller than models with low Z, while the ejected mass and maximum luminosity are larger. Retention efficiency during novae outbursts decreases with increasing metallicity. In our implementation, inclusion of mixing at the H/He interface reduces accreted mass, ejected mass and recurrence period as compared to the no-mixing case, while the maximum luminosity becomes larger. Retention efficiency is significantly reduced, becoming negative in most of our models. For ease of use, we provide a tabular summary of our results.