Speaker: Virginia A. Cúneo (AIP)

Title: Exploring Cataclysmic Variables: Discovery, Classification, and New Insights into Accretion Physics

Abstract: Cataclysmic variables (CVs) are compact binaries in which a white dwarf accretes matter from a low-mass companion star. As the most numerous class of interacting compact binaries in the Galaxy, they provide a powerful laboratory for studying accretion, magnetic fields, and close-binary evolution. In recent years, large surveys have transformed the field by uncovering thousands of CVs and CV candidates. In particular, the eROSITA X-ray telescope aboard the Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma mission has revealed a rich population of new X-ray-selected candidates. Yet many of these sources are contaminants, and establishing their true nature requires detailed follow-up observations.
In this talk, I will give an overview of the diversity of CVs and the observational strategies used to discover and classify them. I will then present recent follow-up results on nova-like systems with possible magnetic behaviour, ultracompact accreting white-dwarf binaries, and wind outflows in accreting white dwarfs. Together, these studies illustrate how multi-wavelength observations are helping to better characterise accreting white-dwarf binaries and to clarify the evolutionary links between their different subclasses.

• Date:
  March 24, 2026, 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
  
  
• Location:

  AIP; Kirch building, Conference room

  
  
• Contact:
  Marcel Pawlowski
  mpawlowski@aip.de