Hydrodynamic structures of quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO)‎ sources

Abstract EN

Short period optical quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) with l%-3% root mean square (rms) amplitudes have been discovered in the white dwarf x-ray binary stars: V834 Cen, AN UMa, EF Eri, and in VVPup.

It was proposed that QPOs were due to oscillatory instability of radiative shocks discovered by Langer, Chanmugam, and Shaviv.

In this paper, we present only the results of our calculations of the time-dependent hydrodynamic structures of oscillating accretion shocks produced by flows onto magnetic white dwarfs.

Our results indicate that radiative shocks with parameters typical of AM Her QPO sources probably cannot sustain limit cycle oscillations,