# SW Sex Stars Then and Now: A Review

## TL;DR

This review discusses the properties, classification, and physical understanding of SW Sextantis stars, a peculiar class of cataclysmic variables, and explores their evolutionary significance near the period gap.

## Contribution

It synthesizes current knowledge and advances understanding of SW Sex stars, linking their peculiar features to their evolutionary context.

## Key findings

- SW Sex stars are concentrated at the upper edge of the period gap.
- The review connects phenomenological properties to physical models.
- Implications for the secular evolution of cataclysmic variables are discussed.

## Abstract

SW Sextantis stars are a class of cataclysmic variables originally defined via certain peculiar properties that they all have in common. In this article, I review our knowledge of these stars and show the way from a phenomenological classification to a physical understanding of these systems. The fact that SW Sex stars accumulate at the upper edge of the period gap is discussed with respect to the secular evolution of cataclysmic variables.