The Period of the Symbiotic Nova PU Vulpeculae

Volume 24 number 2 (1996)

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Peter M. Garnavich

Harvard-Smithsonian Center

Abstract

PU Vul is a very slowly evolving symbiotic nova. AAVSO observations spanning 15 years are used to show that the system is an eclipsing binary with a period of 13.42 + 0.02 years. Modeling of the eclipse shapes indicates that radii of both components of the binary have decreased between 1980 and 1994. The cause for the shrinkage in the size of the giant star is unknown.