[vsnet-chat 2661] Re: RXJ0459.7+1926

["William S G Walker" <astroman@voyager.co.nz>]

Greetings,

What's in a name? Whether we call it Tau 3 or RX whatever as above? But is
it an SU UMa star?

I'm a little intrigued by the tendency to call all stars which show hump
structure during outbursts SU UMa stars. The GCVS defines these as stars
with short and long outbursts - normal and super outbursts. I've always
thought this confusing as stars such as BV Cen have both short and long
outbursts but don't appear to have the superhump phenomenon. Nor are the
long outbursts as regular as the majority of SU UMa stars even though they
seem to have the two stage structure of the SU UMa superoutbursts. But with
its long period few people want to study this star any more.

Getting back to RXJ as above, has anyone found a normal outburst? Or can
anyone produce an orbital period to compare with the hump period? Does it
show the change in superhump period common in stars such as VW Hydri? Apart
from the steep rise to start each hump they resemble orbital humps with
their strong flickering. So is it really an SU UMa star or is it, like many
others which don't seem to have normal outbursts, a separate type of
object? The large amplitude objects of this type are called WZ Sagittae
objects (it would be nice to have a southern hemisphere prototype for a
change) but this seems to be a low amplitude object. 

Regards,
Stan




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> From: Taichi Kato <tkato@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp>
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