The fainter the better: cataclysmic variable stars from the SDSS

TL;DR

This paper presents the SDSS catalog of 212 cataclysmic variables, highlighting a dominant population of faint, old systems and confirming a predicted period spike at 80 minutes.

Contribution

It provides the deepest and most comprehensive homogeneous sample of CVs, revealing a significant population of faint, old systems and confirming a theoretical period spike.

Findings

Most CVs are faint and old, dominating the sample.

First detection of the predicted period spike at 80 minutes.

SDSS sample is the deepest and most populous to date.

Abstract

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has identified a total of 212 cataclysmic variables, most of which are fainter than 18th magnitude. This is the deepest and most populous homogeneous sample of cataclysmic variables to date, and we are undertaking a project to characterise this population. We have found that the SDSS sample is dominated by a great ``silent majority'' of old and faint CVs. We detect, for the first time, a population spike at the minimum period of 80 minutes which has been predicted by theoretical studies for over a decade.