Polars, a Growing Family

Volume 35 number 1 (2007)

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B. T. Gaensicke

K. Buerman

J. A. Mattei

Abstract

For years, AM Herculis was the only member of a class of cataclysmic variable stars now known as polars, whose systems are characterized by a strongly-magnetized white dwarf and the absence of an accretion disc. A number of ground-based and satellite observing missions, particularly the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, have located many more members of the polar family. To date, however, AM Her is the only polar whose long-term variability has been studied in detail.