The crowded magnetosphere of the post common envelope binary QS Virginis

TL;DR

This study provides detailed observations of QS Virginis, revealing long-lived prominences, star spots, and precise stellar parameters, indicating it is a pre-cataclysmic binary nearing mass transfer.

Contribution

It offers new high-resolution spectroscopic and photometric data, detailed prominence mapping, and refined stellar parameters for QS Virginis, enhancing understanding of post common envelope binaries.

Findings

Long-lived prominences passing in front of both stars.

Heavily spotted M star with fixed long-lived spots.

White dwarf's broad magnesium line suggests rapid rotation or magnetic field.

Abstract

We present high speed photometry and high resolution spectroscopy of the eclipsing post common envelope binary QS Virginis (QS Vir). Our UVES spectra span multiple orbits over more than a year and reveal the presence of several large prominences passing in front of both the M star and its white dwarf companion, allowing us to triangulate their positions. Despite showing small variations on a timescale of days, they persist for more than a year and may last decades. One large prominence extends almost three stellar radii from the M star. Roche tomography reveals that the M star is heavily spotted and that these spots are long-lived and in relatively fixed locations, preferentially found on the hemisphere facing the white dwarf. We also determine precise binary and physical parameters for the system. We find that the 14,220 +/- 350K white dwarf is relatively massive, 0.782 +/- 0.013Ms, and has a radius of 0.01068 +/- 0.00007Rs, consistent with evolutionary models. The tidally distorted M star has a mass of 0.382 +/- 0.006Ms and a radius of 0.381 +/- 0.003Rs, also consistent with evolutionary models. We find that the magnesium absorption line from the white dwarf is broader than expected. This could be due to rotation (implying a spin period of only ~700 seconds), or due to a weak (~100kG) magnetic field, we favour the latter interpretation. Since the M star's radius is still within its Roche lobe and there is no evidence that its over-inflated we conclude that QS Vir is most likely a pre-cataclysmic binary just about to become semi-detached.