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J.W. Wellhouse (Harvey Mudd College), D.W. Hoard (SSC/IPAC/Caltech), S.B. Howell (NOAO), S. Wachter (SSC/IPAC/Caltech)
Magnetic cataclysmic variables (mCV) form from binary systems containing a magnetic white dwarf (mWD) and a main sequence companion. These mCV systems are divided into two classes, polars and intermediate polars, based on magnetic field strength. The distributions of orbital periods for known polar and intermediate polar systems are very different. Polars are clumped around 1.5 hours and intermediate polars are more evenly distributed over a wider range. At near infrared wavelengths the low mass companions in the mCV progenitors dominate the colors of these WD + red dwarf binary stars. We have extracted the near-infrared photometry from 2MASS of known mWDs to search for undetected low mass companions. We are able to recover several known mWD + low mass companion binary systems and gain insight into the source populations for the two mCV classes.
This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and is based on work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under an ADP grant issued through the Office of Space Science. This work uses data products from 2MASS, a joint project of the U. of Massachusetts and IPAC/Caltech, funded by NASA and the NSF.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.