CC Sculptoris: A superhumping intermediate polar

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery that CC Sculptoris is an intermediate polar with a short orbital period and a white dwarf spin period of approximately 390 seconds, observed during a dwarf nova superoutburst.

Contribution

It identifies CC Sculptoris as a previously unrecognized intermediate polar with unique short orbital and white dwarf spin periods.

Findings

Orbital period of 1.383 hours

White dwarf spin period of 389.49 seconds

Observed during dwarf nova superoutburst

Abstract

We present high speed optical, spectroscopic and Swift X-ray observations made during the dwarf nova superoutburst of CC Scl in November 2011. An orbital period of 1.383 h and superhump period of 1.443 h were measured, but the principal new finding is that CC Scl is a previously unrecognised intermediate polar, with a white dwarf spin period of 389.49 s which is seen in both optical and Swift X-ray light curves only during the outburst. In this it closely resembles the old nova GK Per, but unlike the latter has one of the shortest orbital periods among intermediate polars.