Infrared spectroscopy of the long-period polar RX J0515.6 + 0105
Open Access
- 11 July 1997
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Vol. 288 (4) , 1033-1040
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/288.4.1033
Abstract
We present K-band (1.81–2.44 μm) spectroscopy of the 7.98-h orbital period polar RXJ0515.6 + 0105. Spectra obtained around orbital phase 0.5 reveal strong emission lines of neutral hydrogen and helium from the accretion stream. No obvious spectral features from the secondary star are detected: the K-band emission is dominated instead by cyclotron radiation from the accretion region. We find that the slope of the cyclotron spectrum is consistent with a magnetic field strength of 60 MG, in agreement with previous optical studies and with the results from our modelling of previous white-light polarimetry. We estimate that the secondary contributes less than ∼ 20 per cent of the infrared flux, implying a distance greater than ∼ 1500 pc. With this result, we estimate the mass transfer rate to be greater than ∼1.0 × 1017 g s−1. We show that it is plausible that the system is synchronized with the derived values of the mass transfer rate and with a primary magnetic field strength of 60 MG.Keywords
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