Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-21T03:19:25.820Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Energy Distributions of Magnetic Variables: The Effects of Inhomogeneous Accretion Columns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

H.S. Stockman
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
A.F. Lubenow
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Previous shock models for the AM Herculis-type magnetic variables have assumed homogeneous accretion columns, with constant infall densities out to a characteristic column radius. The resulting energy distributions are strongly peaked in the visible to ultraviolet and are in disagreement with observations. We report the preliminary results of calculations with more general radial functions of the infall density. Exponential and gaussian profiles yield continua similar to those of the standard model. More tapered, power-law profiles produce continua which are flatter and in better agreement with observations. Comparisons are made to data for AM Her and E2003+225.

Type
VI. Magnetic Cataclysmic Systems
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1987

References

Dulk, G.A., and Marsh, K.A. 1982, Ap. J., 259, 350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, D.Q., and Masters, A.R. 1979, Ap. J.(Letters), 234, 117. (LM)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, D.Q. 1985, in Cataclysmic Variables and Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries, ed. Patterson, J. and Lamb, D.P. (Cambridge: Reidel), p. 179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liebert, J., and Stockman, H.S. 1985, in Cataclysmic Variables and Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries, ed. Patterson, J. and Lamb, D.P. (Cambridge: Reidel), p. 151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborne, J.P., Bonnet-Bidaud, J.M., Bowyer, S., Charles, P.A., Chiappetti, L., Clarke, J.T., Henry, J.P., Hill, G.J., Kahn, S., Maraschi, L., Mukai, K., Treves, A., and Vrtilek, S. 1986, M. N. R. A. S., in press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, G.D., Stockman, H.S., and Grandi, S.A. 1986, Ap. J., 300, 804.CrossRefGoogle Scholar