Quiescent and outburst photometry of the dwarf nova SS Cygni

Honey, W. B.; Bath, G. T.; Charles, P. A.; Whitehurst, R.; Jones, D. H. P.; Echevarria, J.; Arevalo, M. J.; Solheim, J.-E.; Tovmassian, G.; Takagishi, K.
Bibliographical reference

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (ISSN 0035-8711), vol. 236, Feb. 1, 1989, p. 727-734.

Advertised on:
2
1989
Number of authors
10
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
19
Refereed citations
16
Description
Photometric observations of a wide and a narrow outburst of the dwarf nova SS Cygni are used to test the hypothesis that the same mechanism is responsible for the wide outbursts of U Gem stars and the wide outbursts of SU UMa stars. A search for modulations at or near the orbital period of the SS Cygni outbursts was conducted, showing no modulations to a limit of about 0.05 mag. The results are interpreted by Whitehurst's (1984) tidal superhump model which suggests that SU UMa and U Gem outbursts are manifestations of the same basic driving mechanism, but that the presence of superhumps is limited to extreme mass-ratio systems.