AM Herculis: a highly magnetized accreting white dwarf

The properties of the soft X-ray source AM Herculis are discussed in terms of a dwarf nova like model. The soft X-rays are produced by accretion onto a white dwarf and the optical circular polarization by cyclotron radiation in a magnetic field of $$\sim\,{10}^{8}\,\text{G}$$. The relative phasing of the X-ray and optical light curves, the linear and circular polarization and the radial velocity curve are explained in the model in terms of a hot spot or ‘scattering wall’. The white dwarf spins rapidly with a period of order one minute.