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Session 79 - CVs and Novae.
Display session, Wednesday, January 17
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center

[79.10] The Photospheric Properties of the Underlying White Dwarf in the Nova-like Variable TT Arietis during its 1983 Low State

During 1983, TT Arietis entered a low state of visual magnitude 16 during which accretion declined to an extremely low level and the underlying white dwarf accreter was exposed both in the optical (e.g. the Stark-broadened wings of He II 4686\dotA) and in the far ultraviolet (Shafter et al. 1985, ApJ, 290, 707). We have analyzed the low resolution IUE SWP spectra of TT Ari obtained during this low state with a grid of high gravity, solar composition model atmospheres convolved with IUE resolution, constructed with TLUSTY and SYNSPEC (Hubeny 1988, Comput.Phys.Comm. 52, 103; Hubeny 1995, TLUSTY and SYNSPEC USERS MANUAL, in press). We present the resulting photospheric parameters of the hot white dwarf, preliminary abundances of its accreted atmosphere, and a quantitative constraint on its global rotational velocity.

This work has been supported by NASA LTSA grant NAGW-3726 and by a summer research grant from the NASA Delaware Space Grant Colleges Consortium.

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