RAPID OSCILLATIONS IN CATACLYSMIC VARIABLES - XIV - ORBITAL AND SPIN EPHEMERIDES OF FO AQUARII

Citation
J. Patterson et al., RAPID OSCILLATIONS IN CATACLYSMIC VARIABLES - XIV - ORBITAL AND SPIN EPHEMERIDES OF FO AQUARII, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 110(746), 1998, pp. 415-419
Citations number
18
Categorie Soggetti
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Journal title
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
ISSN journal
00046280 → ACNP
Volume
110
Issue
746
Year of publication
1998
Pages
415 - 419
Database
ISI
SICI code
0004-6280(1998)110:746<415:ROICV->2.0.ZU;2-X
Abstract
We report on 17 years of photometry of FO Aquarii, a cataclysmic varia ble with a rapidly rotating, magnetic white dwarf. We give ephemerides for its variations at the 4.8 hr binary period and the 21 minute spin period. The orbital period is constant at 0.2020596(1) day. The spin period decreases on a timescale of 10(6) yr, but with additional wiggl es on timescales of years to decades. The observed alternation between spin-down and spin-up suggests that the star is near its equilibrium spin period, an important prediction of the theory of magnetic catacly smic variables.