A comparative study of the strength of flickering in cataclysmic variables

Abstract

ABSTRACT Flickering is a universal phenomenon in accreting astronomical systems that still defies detailed physical understanding. It is particularly evident in cataclysmic variables (CVs). Attempting to define boundary conditions for models, the strength of the flickering is measured in several thousand light curves of more than 100 CVs. The flickering amplitude is parametrized by the full width at half-maximum of a Gaussian fit to the magnitude distribution of data points in a light curve. This quantity requires several corrections before a comparison between different sources can be made. While no correlations of the flickering strength with simple parameters such as component masses, orbital inclination, or period were detected, a dependence on the absolute magnitude of the primary component and on the CV subtype is found. In particular, flickering in VY Scl type novalike variables is systematically stronger than in UX UMa type novalikes. The broad-band spectrum of the flickering light source can be fit by simple models but shows excess in the U band. When the data permitted to investigate the flickering strength as a function of orbital phase in eclipsing CVs, such a dependence was found, but it is different for different systems. Surprisingly, there are also indications for variations of the flickering strength with the superhump phase in novalike variables with permanent superhumps. In dwarf novae, the flickering amplitude is high during quiescence, drops quickly at an intermediate magnitude when the system enters into (or returns from) an outburst and, on average, remains constant above a given brightness threshold.