Abstract
Two recent optical novae have been observed to radiate a substantial flux of medium energy X rays (nova Monocerotis1, and A1524-61 (ref. 2)), the X-ray luminosity in both cases reached a maximum at the same time as the optical luminosity and was over 100 times greater. In contrast, an unsuccessful search was made by Hoffman et al.3 for X-ray emission from nova Cygni 1975 and the ratio of X-ray to optical luminosity in that case was found to be less than 10−4. Brecher and Morrison4 have suggested that the tyrge differences in this ratio might be related to the rate of mass exchange in the binary system, believing that the X-ray emission arises from the shock heating of dense circumstellar material by the nova ejecta. Only systems with a high density in the accretion flow, such as recurrent novae, will therefore generate large X-ray luminosities.
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References
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Murdin, P., Griffiths, R. E., Pounds, K. A., Watson, M. G. & Longmore, A. T. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 178, 27 (1977).
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CRUISE, A. Upper limits to X-ray emission from nova Vulpeculae 1976. Nature 267, 685–686 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/267685a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/267685a0
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