Nine New Cataclysmic Variable Stars with Negative Superhumps

TL;DR

This study reports nine new cataclysmic variable stars with negative superhumps observed via TESS, analyzing their behavior during outbursts and proposing models to explain NSH amplitude variations.

Contribution

First identification and analysis of nine CVs with NSHs, including orbital periods and superorbital signals, advancing understanding of NSH origins and disk instability models.

Findings

Nine new CVs with NSHs identified.

NSH amplitude varies with outburst and superorbital signals.

Disk instability models need additional factors to explain NSH behavior.

Abstract

Negative superhumps (NSHs) are signals a few percent shorter than the orbital period of a binary star and are considered to originate from the reverse precession of the tilted disk. Based on TESS photometry, we find nine new cataclysmic variable stars (CVs) with NSHs. Three (ASAS J1420, TZ Per, and V392 Hya) of these stars similar to AH Her still have NSHs during dwarf nova outbursts, and the NSH amplitude varies with the outburst. The variation in the radius of the accretion disk partially explains this phenomenon. However, it does not explain the rebound of the NSH amplitude after the peak of the outburst and the fact that the NSH amplitude of the quiescence is sometimes not the largest, and it is necessary to combine the disk instability model (DIM) and add other ingredients. Therefore, we suggest that the variation of NSH amplitude with outburst can be an essential basis for studying the origin of NSHs and improving the DIM. The six ( ASASSN-V J1137, ASASSN-V J0611, 2MASS J0715, LAMOST J0925, ASASSN-17qj, and ZTF18acakuxo) remaining stars have been poorly studied, and for the first time we determine their orbital periods, NSHs and Superorbital signal (SOR) periods. The NSH periods and amplitudes of ASASSN-V J1137 and ASASSN-17qj vary with the SOR, and based on the comparison of the observations with the theory, we suggest that a single change in tilted disk angle does not explain the observations of the SOR and that other ingredients need to be considered as well.