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Episodic Mass Transfer: A Trigger for Nova Outbursts?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

Robert Williams
Robert Williams*
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA email: wms@stsci.edu
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Abstract

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High resolution spectra of post-outburst novae show multiple components of ejected gas that are kinematically distinct. We interpret the observations in terms of episodes of enhanced mass transfer originating from the secondary star that result in the formation of discrete components of circumbinary gas and accretion onto the white dwarf (WD) that trigger nova outbursts. In this picture the concordance between absorption line velocities and emission line widths in most novae occurs as a result of the collision of the expanding nova ejecta with a larger mass of surrounding circumbinary gas. One implication of this model is that much of the accreted gas remains on the WD, leading to a secular increase in WD mass over each outburst event. Alternative scenarios to explain nova spectral evolution are possible that do not invoke circumbinary gas and a possible test of different models is proposed.

Keywords

stars: novaecataclysmic variablessupernovae — accretionaccretion disks — hydrodynamics
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 7 , Issue S281: Binary Paths to Type Ia Supernovae Explosions , July 2011 , pp. 88 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013

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