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arXiv, 2011

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1101.3437

Oxford University Press (OUP), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 4(413), p. 3068-3074

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.18382.x

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The photometric period in ES Ceti

Journal article published in 2011 by C. M. Copperwheat, T. R. Marsh, V. S. Dhillon ORCID, S. P. Littlefair ORCID, P. A. Woudt ORCID, B. Warner, J. Patterson, D. Steeghs ORCID, J. Kemp, E. Armstrong, R. Rea
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

We present ULTRACAM photometry of ES Cet, an ultracompact binary with a 620s orbital period. The mass transfer in systems such as this one is thought to be driven by gravitational radiation, which causes the binary to evolve to longer periods since the semi-degenerate donor star expands in size as it loses mass. We supplement these ULTRACAM+WHT data with observations made with smaller telescopes around the world over a nine year baseline. All of the observations show variation on the orbital period, and by timing this variation we track the period evolution of this system. We do not detect any significant departure from a linear ephemeris, implying a donor star that is of small mass and close to a fully degenerate state. This finding favours the double white dwarf formation channel for this AM CVn star. An alternative explanation is that the system is in the relatively short-lived phase in which the mass transfer rate climbs towards its long-term value. ; Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 8 pages with 2 figures and 1 table. This revision corrects some typographical errors in Table 1