T Pyxidis (a Recurrent Nova)
Arto Oksanen Jyväskylän Sirius ry
EuroVS2013 - Helsinki Collaborator: Bradley E. Schaefer
Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, USA "Napkin astrophysics" by Brad Nova?
Tyko Brahe discovered a new star in Cassiopeia 11. November 1572. The observation was published in "De Nova Stella". Stellar evolution - single star
Nova Outburst
White dwarf accretes mass from the donor star as it fills its Roche lobe. Mass transfer stream flows through th Lagrange point L1 as star evolves to a red giant and the orbit shrinks by gravitational radiation. Usually (not magnetic WD) the falling matter forms an accretion disk around the white dwarf. As friction slows the matter in the disk it eventually falls on the white dwarf. On the surface of the white dwarf the matter forms an ocean of hydrogen. The high gravity of the WD pulls the hydrogen to very high density and the high temperature eventually ignites the fusion. This will start a very fast rise of temperature and runaway chain reaction of thermonuclear fusion. The explosion ejects matter from the white dwarf and the cycle starts over. Type Ia supernova
● When the mass of the white dwarf exceeds the critical limit of 1.4 solar mass it will explode as a type Ia supernova. ● This type is an important cosmic standard candle (equal mass equal luminosity). Recurrent Novae?
● Nova eruption repeats less than 100 years
● White dwarf mass > 1.2 Msun -7 ● High mass transfer ~10 Msun/y ● Known RNe
○ T Pyx ○ V394 CrA ○ IM Nor ○ T CrB ○ CI Aql ○ RS Oph ○ V2487 Oph ○ V745 Sco ○ U Sco ○ V3890 Sgr The big question
● All novae are recurring, but for a "classical nova" the interval is thousands of years ● When the white dwarf mass increases the matter transfer increases and the nova outburst interval decreases ● So the recurrent novae must be very close to the SN limit ● But is the mass accreted between the nova events larger than the mass lost in the outburst? Period change?
● Orbital period is a very accurate tool to measure the mass change ● Needs accurate period measurements (eclipse timings) before and after the nova eruption ● The small number of RNe and infrequent nova events makes the task difficult ● the change is small (<1s) Better known RNe
Fades 3 Name Magnitude Outbursts mags (d)
2006, 1985, 1967, RS Oph 4.8 - 11.0 14 1958
T Crb 2.5 - 10.8 6 1946, 1866
2011, 1967, 1944, T Pyx 6.4 - 15.5 62 1920, 1902
2010, 1999, 1987, U Sco 7.5 - 17.6 2.6 1979 T Pyxidis
● In Pyxis (mariner's compass), declination -32 degrees, not observable from Finland ● Previous outbursts: 1902, 1920, 1944, 1967 ● Next was expected in 1986 ● Brad Schaefer predicted in 2009 the next outburst will come in 2052 +/- 3 ● In 2010 he revised his prediction to thousands or million years in the future ● Outburst was detected 14.4.2011 ! Caisey Harlingten's observatory in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. PlaneWave CDK20 0.51 m f/6.8 Paramount ME Apogee Alta U42 CCD T Pyx
C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) AAVSO light curve (2011-2013) Arto's light curve of T Pyx
212 observing nights, > 60.000 data points ATel #3707: Recurrent Nova T Pyx is Deviating from 1967 Eruption Light Curve October 2011: Periodic signal? Searching the period
Analyzing the data with PERANSO: ● detrend ● subtract the average mag ● ANOVA ● phase plot
Clear 0.0762 day (1.8h) period! ATel #3782: Detection of Photometric Modulation on the Orbital Period in the Eruption Tail of the Recurrent Nova T Pyx ATel #3782
"We detect a highly significant periodic signal at the orbital period. The sinusoidal modulations started around JD 2455815 (2011 Sep 10). Close examination of the best fit period at ten day intervals shows no significant variation in the period or epoch of minimum. With this, we can fit a sine wave to the entire interval from JD 2488815 to 2455885. Our best fit period is 0.076228 ± 0.000003 days, the time of minimum light is JD 2455850.0251 ± 0.0007, and the best fit peak-to-peak amplitude is 0.0048 ± 0.0003 mag."
[0.076228 ± 0.000003 days = 1.82294 ± 0.00007 hr = 109m 46.1s ± 0.2s] The amplitude increased in November 2011 Period change The variation of P orb Mass loss >> accretion !! Ongoing observations
● CHO - time series photometry (A. Oksanen, continues) ● NOT FastTrack - spectropolarimetry (S. Katajainen, A. Oksanen, B. Schaefer, in April 2012) ● VLT - spectropolarimetry (S. Katajainen, A. Oksanen, B. Schaefer, in February 2013)
LAN Chile Santiago-Antofagasta Antofagasta - Cerro Paranal
FORS2
One raw spectra (blue)
OIII
T Pyx nova shell by Hubble Open questions
● Did the period change? Yes! ● Did the WD gain mass ? No! ● Will T Pyx become a SN Ia ? No! ● Is T Pyxidis magnetic? ● What causes the optical signal? ● Why the eruption happened now? ● Why the light curves are different between the outbursts? T Crb - the next RNe outburst?
Brad's prediction: 2026
Maximum: 2.5 mag
Keep on observing! References:
● http://iopscience.iop.org/0067-0049/187/2/275/pdf/apjs_187_2_275.pdf ● http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova ● http://chandra.harvard.edu ● http://arxiv.org/pdf/0809.1800v1.pdf ● http://astronomy.villanova.edu/faculty/sion/CV/index.html ● http://www.aavso.org/v1500-cyg-nova-cygni-1975 ● http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1303/1303.0736.pdf Questions?