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Register a new userFar-Ultraviolet Observations of the Globular Cluster NGC 2808 Revisited: Blue Stragglers, White Dwarfs and Cataclysmic Variables
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A. Dieball
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We present a reanalysis of far-ultraviolet (FUV) observations of the globular cluster NGC 2808 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. These data were first analyzed by Brown and coworkers, with an emphasis on the bright, blue horizontal branch (HB) stars in this cluster. Here, our focus is on the population of fainter FUV sources, which include white dwarfs (WDs), blue stragglers (BSs) and cataclysmic variables (CVs). We have therefore constructed the deepest FUV-NUV colour-magnitude diagram of NGC 2808 and also searched for variability among our FUV sources. Overall, we have found approx. 40 WD, approx. 60 BS and approx. 60 CV candidates; three of the BSs and two of the CV candidates are variable. We have also recovered a known RR Lyrae star in the core of NGC 2808, which exhibits massive (approx. 4 mag) FUV variability. We have investigated the radial distribution and found that our CV and BS candidates are more centrally concentrated than the HBs and WD candidates. This might be an effect of mass segregation, but could as well be due to the preferential formation of such dynamically-formed objects in the dense cluster core. For one of our CV candidates we found a counterpart in WFPC2 optical data published by Piotto and coworkers.
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We present an observational far-UV (FUV) and near-UV (NUV) study of the core region of the globular cluster NGC 6397. The observations were obtained with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS, FUV), and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3, NUV) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Here, we focus on the UV bright stellar populations such as blue stragglers (BSs), white dwarfs (WDs) and cataclysmic variables (CVs). We present the first FUV-NUV color-magnitude diagram (CMD) for this cluster. To support our classification of the stellar populations, we compare our FUV-NUV CMD with optical data from the ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. The FUV-NUV CMD indicates 16 sources located in the WD area, and ten BSs within the 25x 25 of the STIS FUV data. Eighteen Chandra X-ray sources are located within the FUV field of view. Thirteen of those have a NUV counterpart, of which nine sources also have a FUV counterpart. Out of those, five sources are previously suggested CVs, and indeed all five are located in the WD/CV region in our FUV-NUV CMD. Another CV only has a FUV but no NUV counterpart. We also detect a NUV (but no FUV) counterpart to the MSP located in the core of this cluster. The NUV lightcurves of the CVs and MSP show flickering behaviour typical of CVs. We found that the BSs and CVs are the most centrally concentrated population. This might be an effect of mass segregation or indicate the preferred birth place of BSs and CVs via dynamical interactions in the dense core region of GCs. HB stars are the least centrally concentrated population and absent in the innermost area of the core.
We have obtained HST/STIS data for a total of eleven polars as part of a program aimed to compile a homogeneous database of high-quality far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectra for a large number of cataclysmic variables (CVs). Of the eleven polars, eight were found in a state of low accretion activity (V347Pav, VVPup, V834Cen, BLHyi, MRSer, STLMi, RXJ1554.2+2721 and V895Cen) and three in a state of high activity (CDInd, ANUMa and UWPic). The STIS spectra of the low-state polars unambiguously reveal the photospheric emission of their white dwarf (WD) primaries. We have used pure hydrogen WD models to fit the FUV spectra of the low-state systems (except RX J1554.2+2721, which is a high-field polar) in order to measure the WD effective temperatures. In all cases, the fits could be improved by adding a second component, which is presumably due to residual accretion onto the magnetic pole of the WD. The WD temperatures obtained range from 10800K to 14200K for log g = 8.0. Comparing the WD temperatures of polars to those of non-magnetic CVs, we find that at any given orbital period the WDs in polars are colder than those in non-magnetic CVs. The temperatures of polars below the period gap are consistent with gravitational radiation as the only active angular momentum loss mechanism. The differences in WD effective temperatures between polars and non-magnetic CVs are significantly larger above the period gap, suggesting that magnetic braking in polars might be reduced by the strong field of the primary.
We have used high resolution spectra obtained with the spectrograph FLAMES at the ESO Very Large Telescope to determine the kinematical properties and the abundance patterns of 20 blue straggler stars (BSSs) in the globular cluster M4. We found that ~ 40% of the measured BSSs are fast rotators (with rotational velocities > 50 km/s). This is the largest frequency of rapidly rotating BSSs ever detected in a globular cluster. In addition, at odds with what has been found in 47 Tucanae, no evidence of carbon and/or oxygen depletion has been revealed in the sample of 11 BSSs for which we were able to measure the abundances. This could be due either to low statistics, or to a different BSS formation process acting in M4.
Ultraviolet observations using the Solar Blind Channel on the Hubble Space Telescope provide light curves and low resolution spectra of three pulsating white dwarfs in the cataclysmic variables SDSS013132.39-090122.3, SDSSJ161033.64-010223.3 and SDSSJ220553.98+115553.7. The UV light curves show enhanced pulsation amplitudes over those from simultaneous and previous optical photometry, while the UV-optical spectra are fit with white dwarf temperatures near 15,000K. These temperatures place the accreting white dwarfs outside the instability zone for non-interacting DAV white dwarfs and show that the instability strip is complex for accreting white dwarfs.
The origin of magnetic fields in isolated and binary white dwarfs has been investigated in a series of recent papers. One proposal is that magnetic fields are generated through an alpha-omega dynamo during common envelope evolution. Here we present population synthesis calculations showing that this hypothesis is supported by observations of magnetic binaries.
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