Using XXM-Newton and Optical Photometry to Figure Out CVs

Volume 35 number 1 (2007)

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Paula Szkody

Lee Homer

Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195

Arne A. Henden

AAVSO, 25 Birch Street, Cambridge, MA 02145

Abstract

X-ray light curves from XMM-Newton combined with optical data from the satellite and ground-based observers provide distinctive shapes and periodicities that give information on the correct classification of cataclysmic variables. Our recent data on three SDSS sources with strong helium emission are used to identify a highly magnetic system (a polar), the spin of the white dwarf in an intermediate polar, and a typical disk accreting system. NOTE: The authors of this paper have posted an erratum: https://app.aavso.org/jaavso/article/2510/