The cataclysmic variable QZ Lib: a period bouncer

TL;DR

This study characterizes the cataclysmic variable QZ Lib, providing evidence it is a post-period minimum system with a brown dwarf donor, thus contributing to understanding the evolution of highly evolved CVs.

Contribution

The paper presents multi-epoch spectroscopic analysis of QZ Lib, confirming it as a period bouncer with a brown dwarf donor, which is a rare observational confirmation of this evolutionary phase.

Findings

Orbital period measured at 0.06436 days.

White dwarf effective temperature around 10,500 K.

Donor's temperature consistent with a T-type brown dwarf.

Abstract

While highly evolved cataclysmic variables (CVs) with brown dwarf donors, often called "period bouncers", are predicted to make up $\simeq40-70$ % of the Galactic CV population, only a handful of such systems are currently known. The identification and characterization of additional period bouncers is therefore important to probe this poorly understood phase of CV evolution. We investigate the evolution of the CV QZ Lib following its 2004 super-outburst using multi-epoch spectroscopy. From time-resolved spectroscopic observations we measure the orbital period of the system, $P_\mathrm{orb}= 0.06436(20)$ d, which, combined with the superhump period $P_\mathrm{SH}= 0.064602(24)$ d, yields the system mass ratio, $q = 0.040(9)$. From the analysis of the spectral energy distribution we determine the structure of the accretion disc and the white dwarf effective temperature, $T_\mathrm{eff} = 10\,500 \pm 1500\,\mathrm{K}$. We also derive an upper limit on the effective temperature of the secondary, $T_\mathrm{eff} \lesssim 1700\,\mathrm{K}$, corresponding to a brown dwarf of T spectral type. The low temperature of the white dwarf, the small mass ratio and the fact that the donor is not dominating the near-infrared emission are all clues of a post bounce system. Although it is possible that QZ Lib could have formed as a white dwarf plus a brown dwarf binary, binary population synthesis studies clearly suggest this scenario to be less likely than a period bouncer detection and we conclude that QZ Lib is a CV that has already evolved through the period minimum.