Magnetic Fields in Interacting Binaries

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether magnetic fields in magnetic cataclysmic variables originate from stellar interactions during the common envelope phase, building on theories about magnetic white dwarf formation.

Contribution

It synthesizes a binary population to explore the potential origin of magnetic fields in MCVs during stellar mergers in the CE phase.

Findings

Supports the hypothesis that magnetic fields in MCVs can form during common envelope evolution.

Provides population synthesis evidence linking stellar mergers to magnetic field generation.

Suggests a common evolutionary pathway for magnetic white dwarfs and MCVs.

Abstract

Wickramasinghe et al. (2014) and Briggs et al. (2015) have proposed that the strong magnetic fields observed in some single white dwarfs (MWDs) are formed by a dynamo driven by differential rotation when two stars, the more massive one with a degenerate core, merge during common envelope (CE) evolution (Ferrario et al., 2015b). We synthesize a population of binaries to investigate if fields in the magnetic cataclysmic variables (MCVs) may also originate during stellar interaction in the CE phase.