Superhumps, magnetic fields and the mass ratio in AM Canum Venaticorum

Pearson, K.J. (2003) Superhumps, magnetic fields and the mass ratio in AM Canum Venaticorum. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 346 (2). L21-L25. ISSN 0035-8711 doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2966.2003.07290.x

Abstract/Summary

We show that the observed K velocities and periodicities of AM CVn can be reconciled given a mass ratio q~0.22 and a secondary star with a modest magnetic field of surface strength B~1 T. We see that the new mass ratio implies that the secondary is most likely semidegenerate. The effect of the field on the accretion disc structure is examined. The theory of precessing discs and resonant orbits is generalized to encompass higher order resonances than 3:2 and shown to retain consistency with the new mass ratio.