Optical Dual-Band Photometry and Spectroscopy of the WZ Sge-Type Dwarf Nova EZ Lyn during the 2010 Superoutburst

TL;DR

This study presents optical dual-band photometry and spectroscopy of the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova EZ Lyn during its 2010 superoutburst, revealing color changes, disk radius evolution, and gas dynamics that support the mass reservoir model for rebrightening.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed dual-band photometric and spectroscopic analysis of EZ Lyn during superoutburst, highlighting differences from similar objects and supporting specific rebrightening mechanisms.

Findings

Color reddened during superoutburst and rebrightening, then blued during decline.

Disk radius ratio decreased more slowly than in V455 And.

Hα line indicated an extended optically thin gas region.

Abstract

We performed optical simultaneous dual-band (SDSS $g'$- and $i'$- band) photometry and low-resolution spectroscopy for the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova EZ Lyn during its 2010 superoutburst. Dual-band photometry revealed that the $g'-i'$ color reddened with a decrease in brightness, during the main superoutburst and the following rebrightening phase, whereas the color became bluer with a further decrease in brightness during the slow, final decline phase. With a fit to our photometric results by a blackbody function, we estimated the disk radius ratio (ratio of the disk radius to the binary separation) and compared this with that of V455 And, a WZ Sge-type object that did not show any rebrightening in the 2007 superoutburst. The comparison revealed: (1) the disk radius ratio of EZ Lyn decreased more slowly than that of V455 And; and (2) the radius ratio of EZ Lyn at the end of the main superoutburst was larger than that of the V455 And. These results favor the mass reservoir model for the mechanism of rebrightening. During both the superoutburst plateau and subsequent rebrightening phase, H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ lines were detected. The H$\alpha$ line showed a double-peak profile from which we estimated the disk radius ratio. The comparison of this ratio with that derived by photometry, indicates that the H$\alpha$ disk was larger than the photometric one, which suggests that the optically thin gas was extended to the outer region more than the optically thick gas disk and was possibly responsible for the rebrightening phenomenon. Time-series dual-band photometry during the main superoutburst revealed that color variations during the early superhump show roughly the same behavior as that of V455 And, whereas color variations during the ordinary superhump display clear anticorrelation with brightness, in contrast to that seen in the V455 And.