A Survey of Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Observations of Cataclysmic Variables

TL;DR

This paper surveys 99 cataclysmic variables observed with FUSE, analyzing their far-ultraviolet spectra to understand accretion processes, disk structures, and white dwarf characteristics across different system types.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive atlas of FUSE spectra of CVs, highlighting spectral diversity and correlating features with system properties.

Findings

Spectral contributions vary widely among CV subtypes.

Data reveal details about disk winds and white dwarf temperatures.

Long-term effects of accretion outbursts are observed.

Abstract

During its lifetime, the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) was used to observe 99 cataclysmic variables in 211 separate observations. Here, we present a survey of the moderate resolution (R\simeq10,000), far-ultraviolet (905 - 1188 {\deg}A), time-averaged FUSE spectra of cataclysmic variables (CVs). The FUSE spectra are morphologically diverse. They show contributions from the accretion disk, the disk chromosphere, disk outflows, and the white dwarf, but the relative contribution of each component varies widely as a function of CV subtype, orbital period and evolutionary state, inclination, mass accretion rate, and magnetic field strength of the white dwarf. The data reveal information about the structure, temperature, density and mass flow rates of the disk and disk winds, the temperature of the white dwarf and the effects of ongoing accretion on its structure, and the long-term response of the systems to disk outbursts. The complete atlas of time-averaged FUSE spectra of CVs are available at the Multimission Archive at Space Telescope Science Institute as a High Level Science Product.