The spin-down problem in the white dwarf of AE Aquarii: numerical study of a turn-over scenario
| dc.creator | Geroyannis, V. S. | |
| dc.date | 2001-03-05 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T01:57:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T01:57:53Z | |
| dc.description | The white dwarf in AE Aqr is observed to spin down at a steady time rate ~ 5.64*10^{-14} s s^{-1}, while at the same time its UV and X-ray accretion luminosities remain almost unchanged. This is a contradiction, however, since the classicaly estimated spin-down power ~ -10^{34} erg s^{-1} exceeds the accretion luminosity of the primary by a factor ~ 10^2 and, as a dominating power, should lead either to observable luminosity changes or to other detectable effects. This so-called "spin-down problem" can be relaxed under the assumption that the primary is now in a phase of rapidly decreasing its differential rotation under constant angular momentum, undergoing a nonaxisymmetric transition (i.e., turning over its magnetic symmetry axis with respect to its angular momentum axis and eventually becoming a perpendicular rotator) from a "differential rotation state" (DRS) to a "rigid rotation state" (RRS) on a relatively short "nonaxisymmetric DRS-to-RRS transition timescale". If so, then the estimated spin-down power ~ -3*10^{32} erg s^{-1} becomes comparable to the observed luminosities and the spin-down problem is drastically simplified. We present a detailed numerical study of such a "turn-over scenario", which study mainly points out the fact that an observed large spin-down time rate does not always imply a large spin-down power. | |
| dc.description | AAS LATEX v4.0; 49 pages in total with 12 postscript figures; submitted to Ap. J.; alternative author's email: vgeroyan@physics.upatras.gr | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0103080 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0103080 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/2561 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | The spin-down problem in the white dwarf of AE Aquarii: numerical study of a turn-over scenario | |
| dc.type | text |