# Discovery of optical flickering from the symbiotic star EF Aquilae

## TL;DR

This paper reports the detection of optical flickering in the symbiotic star EF Aquilae, indicating active accretion onto a white dwarf, and suggests that flickering is rare among symbiotic stars.

## Contribution

First detection of optical flickering in EF Aquilae, expanding the known cases and providing insights into accretion processes in symbiotic stars.

## Key findings

- Optical flickering with 0.2 mag amplitude observed in EF Aql.
- EF Aql likely contains a white dwarf as the hot component.
- Less than 1% of the Mira wind is accreted by the white dwarf.

## Abstract

We report optical CCD photometry of the recently identified symbiotic star EF Aql. Our observations in Johnson V and B bands clearly show the presence of stochastic light variations with an amplitude of about 0.2 mag on a time scale of minutes. The observations point toward a white dwarf (WD) as the hot component in the system. It is the 11-th object among more than 200 symbiotic stars known with detected optical flickering. Estimates of the mass accretion rate onto the WD and the mass loss rate in the wind of the Mira secondary star lead to the conclusion that less than 1 per cent of the wind is captured by the WD. Eight further candidates for the detection of flickering in similar systems are suggested.