An Analysis of X-Ray Hardness Ratios between Asynchronous and Non-Asynchronous Polars
Volume 49 number 2 (2021)
- Eric Masington
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409; eric.masington@ttu.edu
- Thomas J. Maccarone
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409; thomas.maccarone@ttu.edu
- Liliana Rivera Sandoval
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409; and Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R3, Canada; lriveras@ualberta.ca
- Craig Heinke
- Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R3, Canada; heinke@ualberta.ca
- Arash Bahramian
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia; arash.bahramian@curtin.edu.au
- Aarran W. Shaw
- Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557; aarrans@unr.edu
Abstract
The subclass of magnetic Cataclysmic Variables (CV) known as asynchronous polars is still relatively poorly understood. An asynchronous polar is a polar in which the spin period of the white dwarf is either shorter or longer than the binary orbital period (typically within a few percent). The asynchronous polars have been disproportionately detected in soft gamma-ray observations, leading us to consider the possibility that they have intrinsically harder x-ray spectra. We compared standard and asynchronous polars in order to examine the relationship between a CV’s synchronization status and its spectral shape. Using the entire sample of asynchronous polars, we find that the asynchronous polars may, indeed, have harder spectra, but that the result is not statistically significant.