Analysis of a Kepler Light Curve of the Novalike Cataclysmic Variable KIC 8751494

TL;DR

This study analyzed Kepler data of the novalike cataclysmic variable KIC 8751494, revealing stable orbital and superhump periods, significant superhump period variations linked to brightness changes, and highlighting the importance of pressure effects in superhump period determination.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new two-dimensional period analysis method using Lasso, providing deeper insights into superhump period variations and their physical causes in novalike systems.

Findings

Detected stable orbital period of 0.114379 days.

Observed significant superhump period variations up to 30%.

Identified pressure effects as key in superhump period changes.

Abstract

We analyzed a Kepler light curve of KIC 8751494, a recently recognized novalike cataclysmic variable in the Kepler field. We detected a stable periodicity of 0.114379(1) d, which we identified as being the binary's orbital period. The stronger photometric period around 0.12245 d, which had been detected from the ground-based observation, was found to be variable, and we identified this period as being the positive superhump period. This superhump period showed short-term (10-20 d) and strong variations in period most unexpectedly when the object entered a slightly faint state. The fractional superhump excess varied as large as ~30%. The variation of the period very well traced the variation of the brightness of the system. The time-scales of this variation of the superhump period was too slow to be interpreted as the variation caused by the change in the disk radius due to the thermal disk instability. We interpreted that the period variation was caused by the varying pressure effect on the period of positive superhumps. This finding suggests that the pressure effect, in at least novalike systems, plays a very important (up to ~30% in the precession rate) role in producing the period of the positive superhumps. We also described a possible detection of the negative superhumps with a varying period of 0.1071-0.1081 d in the Q14 run of the Kepler data. We also found that the phase of the velocity variation of the emission lines reported in the earlier study is compatible with the SW Sex-type classification. Further, we introduced a new two-dimentional period analysis using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) and showed superior advantage of this method.