Submitting Campus
Prescott
Department
Physics and Astronomy
Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
1-1-2025
Abstract/Description
We investigated the temporal and spectral features of γ Cassiopeiae’s X-ray emission within the context of the white dwarf (WD) accretion hypothesis. We find that the variabilities present in the X-ray data show two different signals, one primarily due to absorption and the other due to flickering like in nonmagnetic cataclysmic variables. We then use this two-component insight to investigate previously unreported simultaneous XMM and NuSTAR data. The results of model fitting find WD properties consistent with optical studies alongside a significant secondary, thermal source. We propose a secondary shock between the Be decretion disk and WD accretion disk as the source. Finally, we analyzed a unique, low-count-rate event of the XMM light curve as potential evidence for the WD encountering Be decretion disk structures.
Publication Title
The Astrophysical Journal
DOI
10.3847/1538-4357/ad944e
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Scholarly Commons Citation
Gunderson, S. J., Huenemoerder, D. P., Torrejón, J. M., Swarm, D. K., Nichols, J. S., Pradhan, P., Ignace, R., Guenther, H. M., Pollock, A., & Schulz, N. S. (2025). A Time-dependent Spectral Analysis of γ Cassiopeiae. The Astrophysical Journal, 978(1). 10.3847/1538-4357/ad944e
Additional Information
Please access the version-of-record published in The Astrophysical Journal here.