Discovery of deep eclipses in the cataclysmic variable ZTF17aaaeefu (2MASS J00594349+6454419)

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of deep eclipses in the cataclysmic variable ZTF17aaaeefu, providing precise orbital parameters and highlighting its potential for future stellar mass measurements.

Contribution

The paper presents the first detailed photometric analysis of ZTF17aaaeefu, including the discovery of deep eclipses and a highly precise orbital period measurement, which aids future studies.

Findings

Deep eclipses with ~30 min width observed.

Orbital period measured as 0.18821155 days with high precision.

Eclipse ephemeris valid for 700 years.

Abstract

I performed photometric observations of the cataclysmic variable candidate ZTF17aaaeefu and discovered very deep eclipses. The observations were obtained over 8 nights covering 7 months. The eclipse profile is similar to the eclipse profiles observed in other cataclysmic variables. During the observations, ZTF17aaaeefu showed brightness changes resembling dwarf nova outbursts and quiescent states. When ZTF17aaaeefu was bright (16.0-16.2 mag), the average eclipse depth was 2.50+/-0.18 mag. When ZTF17aaaeefu was faint (17.2-17.4 mag), the average eclipse depth was 1.45+/-0.06 mag. However, these differences in the eclipse depth may be mainly caused by the contaminating effect of three faint stars around ZTF17aaaeefu. In both cases, the average width of the prominent parts of the eclipses was the same and was about 30 min. Due to the large coverage of observations, I measured the orbital period with high precision, Porb=0.18821155+/-0.00000014 d. I derived the eclipse ephemeris, the validity time of which is 700 years in accordance with the precision of the orbital period. This ephemeris can be used for future studies of the orbital period changes. Because ZTF17aaaeefu has a long orbital period, this cataclysmic variable is of interest for determining the masses of its stellar components. In future radial velocity measurements, my precise eclipse ephemeris may be useful for determining the orbital phases.