Abstract
AM HER has been identified as the optical counterpart of 3U 1809+50 by its common period of 3.1 h (refs 1, 2). The system shows strong emission lines, the radial velocities of which have been measured by Priedhorsky3 and Cowley4. Tapia2 has measured strong linear and circular polarisation which indicates that one component of the system is probably a white dwarf emitting strong cyclotron radiation. Photometric light curves have been observed5,6 which show two minima, unlike the X-ray light curve which has only one; the system also has a red colour index. Models of the system which rely on a white dwarf, accretion disk, hot spot, and a gas stream from a companion star that fills its Roche Lobe have been proposed by Chanmugan7 and Fabian8. In view of the red colour, strong emission lines and cyclotron radiation, we considered that infrared observations of this star would be of interest.
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References
Hearn, D. R. & Richardson, J. A. MIT preprint CSR-P-76-36, (1976).
Tapia, S. Astrophys. J. Lett. 212, L125 (1977).
Priedhorsky, W. C. Astrophys. J. Lett. 212, L117 (1976).
Cowley, A. P. & Crampton, D. Astrophys. J. Lett. 212, L121 (1976).
Szkody, P. & Brownlee, D. E. Astrophys. J. Lett. 212, L113 (1976).
Olson, E. C. Astrophys. J. 215, 166 (1976).
Chanmugan, G. & Wagner, R. L. Astrophys. J. Lett. 213, L13 (1977).
Fabian, A. C., Pringle, J. E., Rees, M. J. & Whelan, J. A. J. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 179, 9P (1977).
Johnson, H. L., Mitchell, R. I., Iriarte, B. & Wisneiwski, W. Z. Commun. lunar planet. Lab. Univ. Arizona 4, 99 (1966).
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JAMESON, R., AKINCI, R., ADAMS, D. et al. Infrared light curves of AM Herculis. Nature 271, 334–335 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/271334b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/271334b0
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