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| Paper: |
Dynamo-Induced Mass-Transfer Variations in MCVs |
| Volume: |
315, Magnetic Cataclysmic Variables (IAU Colloquium 190) |
| Page: |
360 |
| Authors: |
Hessman, F.V. |
| Abstract: |
The fully convective secondary stars in short-period CVs are rapidly rotating and thus should have a characteristic global magnetic field produced by an α2-Dynamo. This field is expected to be dipole-like, with an axis lying in the orbital plane, and to rotate slowly through the mass of the star on magnetic diffusion timescales of years to decades. When one of the poles of this field is near the inner Lagrange point, the reduction in the sound speed, scale-height and possibly the density in the giant "starspot" will modulate the mass-transfer to the primary. Given the extremely high Coriolis numbers (low Rosby numbers) of CV secondaries, this is a generic mechanism which is capable of explaining the extended high- and low-states in the mean light curves of shorter period MCVs and perhaps the lightcurves of non-magnetic CVs (where a disk may make it difficult to see this effect). The diffusion timescale and hence the period of rotation of the field within the secondary is of order the synchronization timescale, so shorter period polars are unlikely to be in rotational equilibrium. |
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