# The Rise and Fall of the King: The Correlation between FO Aquarii's Low States and the White Dwarf's Spindown

## TL;DR

This study links the low-accretion states of FO Aquarii to the white dwarf's spin-down phase, revealing unique spin period behavior, accretion mode sensitivity, and spectral changes during low states, advancing understanding of intermediate polar dynamics.

## Contribution

It provides the first detailed correlation between low states and spin-down in FO Aqr, including updated spin ephemeris, accretion mode analysis, and X-ray spectral observations, highlighting novel spin behavior.

## Key findings

- White dwarf's spin period increased after 2014, reversing a 27-year decrease.
- Low states occurred shortly after the white dwarf began spinning down.
- Accretion mode shifts from disk-fed to stream-fed depending on brightness.

## Abstract

The intermediate polar FO Aquarii (FO Aqr) experienced its first-reported low-accretion states in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and using newly available photographic plates, we identify pre-discovery low states in 1965, 1966, and 1974. The primary focus of our analysis, however, is an extensive set of time-series photometry obtained between 2002 and 2018, with particularly intensive coverage of the 2016-2018 low states. After computing an updated spin ephemeris for the white dwarf (WD), we show that its spin period began to increase in 2014 after having spent 27 years decreasing; no other intermediate polar has experienced a sign change of its period derivative, but FO Aqr has now done so twice. Our central finding is that the recent low states all occurred shortly after the WD began to spin down, even though no low states were reported in the preceding quarter-century, when it was spinning up. Additionally, the system's mode of accretion is extremely sensitive to the mass-transfer rate, with accretion being almost exclusively disk-fed when FO Aqr is brighter than V~14 and substantially stream-fed when it is not. Even in the low states, a grazing eclipse remains detectable, confirming the presence of a disk-like structure (but not necessarily a Keplerian accretion disk). We relate these various observations to theoretical predictions that during the low state, the system's accretion disk dissipates into a non-Keplerian ring of diamagnetic blobs. Finally, a new XMM-Newton observation from a high state in 2017 reveals an anomalously soft X-ray spectrum and diminished X-ray luminosity compared to pre-2016 observations.