Photometric Long-Term Variations and Superhump Occurrence in the Classical Nova RR Pictoris
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MNRAS 000, 1–8 (2017) Preprint 19 October 2017 Compiled using MNRAS LATEX style file v3.0 Photometric long-term variations and superhump occurrence in the Classical Nova RR Pictoris I. Fuentes-Morales1⋆, N. Vogt1⋆, C. Tappert1, L. Schmidtobreick2, F.-J. Hambsch3 and M. Vuckoviˇ c´1 1 Instituto de Física y Astronomía, Universidad de Valparaíso, Avda. Gran Bretaña 1111, Valparaíso, Chile 2 European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile 3 Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde (VVS), Oude Bleken 12, 2400 Mol, Belgium Accepted XXX. Received YYY; in original form ZZZ ABSTRACT We present an analysis of all available time-resolved photometry from the literature and new light curves obtained in 2013–2014 for the old nova RR Pictoris. The well-known hump light curve phased with the orbital period reveals significant variations over the last 42 years in shape, amplitude and other details which apparently are caused by long-term variations in the disc structure. In addition we found evidence for the presence of superhumps in 2007, with the same period (∼9% longer than the orbital period), as reported earlier by other authors from observations in 2005. Possibly, superhumps arise quickly in RR Pic, but are sporadic events, because in all the other observing runs analysed no significant superhump signal was detected. We also determined an actual version of the Stolz–Schoembs relation between su- perhump period and orbital period, analysing separately dwarf novae, classical novae and nova-like stars, and conclude that this relation is of general validity for all superhumpers among the cataclysmic variables (CVs), in spite of small but significant differences among the sub-types mentioned above. We emphasize the importance of such a study in context with the still open question of the interrelation between the different sub-classes of CVs, crucial for our understanding of the long-term CV evolution. Key words: accretion, accretion discs – stars: individual RR Pic – novae, cataclysmic vari- ables. 1 INTRODUCTION periodic hump of Porb = 3.48 h, which has been identified as the orbital one (Vogt 1975). Additionally, they have undergone Cataclysmic variables (CVs) are close interacting binary systems several changes and transient features over the decades since where a late-type dwarf star fills its Roche lobe and transfers mass its eruption, showing eclipse-like characteristics (Warner 1986), towards the white dwarf (WD) primary component. In case of a 15 min periodicities (Kubiak 1984), QPOs and positive super- weak –or absent– magnetic field of the WD, the transferred ma- humps (Schmidtobreick et al. 2008). Time-series spectroscopy arXiv:1710.06543v1 [astro-ph.SR] 18 Oct 2017 terial from the secondary star is accumulated forming an accre- and Doppler mapping found evidence for two emission sources, tion disc around the WD. Once the accumulated mass on the pri- the hotspot and a source opposite. (Haefner & Metz 1982; mary reaches a critical value, the surface temperature of the WD Schmidtobreick et al. 2003; Ribeiro & Diaz 2006). In a recent increases and triggers nuclear fusion reactions producing a ther- work Vogt et al. (2017) derived a more precise orbital ephemeris monuclear runaway, which is known as a nova eruption. CVs that from all available photometric humps observed in the past five underwent a nova eruption are called classical novae (for details see decades. They furthermore found variations in the O–C diagram Warner 1995). that could imply the presence of a third body. RR Pictoris is one of the brightest and nearest novae known The motivation for the present investigation was the discovery (distance d = 388 ± 88 pc; Ramsay et al. 2017). Its nova eruption already mentioned of an additional period that is 8.6 per cent was discovered by Jones (1928) at its maximum brightness longer than the orbital one, which was interpreted as a superhump V = 1.2 mag in 1925. Currently the stellar remnant appears period (P ) by Schmidtobreick et al. (2008). Superhumps are to be in a state of quiescence, with V ∼ 12.7 mag. The pho- sh photometric modulations in the light curve with periods slightly tometric light curves of RR Pic show as a permanent feature a different from the orbital period, which are present in SU-UMa type dwarf novae during superoutburst (Vogt 1974) and also as ⋆ E-mail: [email protected] (IF), [email protected] (NV) ‘permanent superhumps’ in some nova-like CVs (Patterson 1999). c 2017 The Authors L2 I. Fuentes-Morales et al. If Psh is a few percent longer than the orbital period we call Table 1. Summary of RR Pic photometric data for each campaign. this a “positive superhump”, while the case Psh < Porb refers to “negative superhumps”. Vogt (1982b) was the first who proposed HJD HJD N ∆t Observer Campaign superhumps are associated to an eccentric accretion disc during start end (+2400000 d) (+2400000 d) (hr) name superoutburst, based on spectroscopic observations of Z Cha. Later studies have established that the disc becomes eccentric 41656.40332 41696.30201 11 36.6 1, 4 1972–1973 when it reaches the 3:1 resonance, due to the interaction with the 42023.52854 42064.69775 7 18.8 1, 4 1973–1974 secondary, causing the elongated section of the disc moves to 44255.55140 44261.55750 5 31.1 2 1980–1 different time-scale respect to the orbital period (Whitehurst 1988; 4294.267740 4295.267660 2 6.8 4 1980–2 44937.36686 44951.46229 5 15.3 4 1981 Osaki 1989; Patterson et al. 2005 and references therein). Thus, 45245.77872 45253.71943 4 12.8 3 1982 the presence of superhump in classical novae can be used as a tool 51875.98085 51967.91066 15 84.9 5 2000–2001 to understand the state of the system in general, and of the disc 53375.02367 53398.87515 15 87.7 5 2005–1 properties decades after the nova eruption. 53409.53241 53470.47910 14 66.3 6 2005–2 54114.02361 54138.98391 6 45.7 5 2007 In this paper, we present a re-analysis of all available photomet- 56617.63134 56732.50956 81 449.05 7 2013–2014 ric data of RR Pic, between 47 and 89 years after its classical nova explosion observations. We also add new data taken during 1. Vogt (1975), 2. Haefner & Metz (1982), 3. Kubiak (1984), 4. Warner 2013–2014 and study the orbital hump light curves during the past (1986), 5. CBA database, 6. Schmidtobreick et al. (2008), 7. ROAD decades in a systematic way. Furthermore we perform a methodi- cal search for superhumps in RR Pic and compare our results with us with additional unpublished differential photometry in white those known for other classical novae, nova-like stars and dwarf light of RR Pic, obtained in a total of 50 nights between 1999 and novae. 2007 by different amateur astronomers. (vi) Differential photometric data obtained by Schmidtobreick et al. (2008) during the first semester of 2005, 2 OBSERVATIONS covering 18 complete orbital cycles. 2.1 Compilation of historical light curves and new In addition one of us (FJH) has obtained new V band photome- observations try in 81 nights between 21 November 2013 and 16 March 2014, using the robotic 40 cm telescope at the Remote Observatory At- The light curves of RR Pic analysed here consist of published ob- acama Desert (ROAD), situated in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile servations made by different authors, complemented by new data (Hambsch 2012). This telescope is equipped with a CCD camera obtained in 2013 and 2014. The different campaigns are sum- that contains a Kodak 16803 chip of 4k × 4k pixels of 9- µm size. marised in Table 1, which contains: the Heliocentric Julian date The integration time was 30 seconds with a cadence of 2–3 minutes. (HJD) at start and at the end of each campaign (HJDstart and Normally, one entire orbital period per night was covered. How- HJDend), the total number of light curves (N), the total time cov- ever, due to the coordinates of RR Pic, only a partial coverage of ered by observations (∆t), the identification of the observer and the the orbital period was possible at the end of this run (February to campaign name (see Fig. 2). An observing log for hitherto unpub- March 2014). lished data is given as on-line supplementary data. In particular, we We had access to the original data of Vogt (1975), Warner can distinguish the following campaigns: (1986), Schmidtobreick et al. (2008) and those of the Center (i) UBV photometry observed by Vogt (1975) during four nights Backyard Astrophysics, all in digital form. The light curves of in December 1972 and three nights of white light data in January Haefner & Metz (1982) and Kubiak (1984) were only available as 1974; from the UBV data we analysed only the V band light curves, figures. Therefore, we digitised them from the respective publica- exter2 given that the color index B–V is close to 0 (see fig. 5 in Vogt tions, using the D service from the website of the German 1975). All these observations have covered more than one orbital Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (GAVO). cycle. In Fig. 1 we present examples of the light curves corre- (ii) High-speed photometry in white light of Warner (1986) sponding to hitherto unpublished campaigns: 2005 and 2007 from from 1972 to 1984 over 23 nights. In eight of them at least one CBA and 2013 from ROAD. In all light curves we also show the orbital period was covered. Only raw instrumental values (count mean sine fit curve of the orbital hump with an adopted amplitude = . ± . rates per second) are available, without observations of compari- A 0 14 0 01 mag and the global orbital period according to son stars nor any other calibration.