Anomalous Cooling of the Massive White Dwarf in U Geminorum Following a Narrow Dwarf Nova Outburst

Abstract

We obtained Hubble Space Telescope Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph medium-resolution (G160M grating), phase-resolved spectroscopic observations of the prototype dwarf nova U Geminorum during dwarf nova quiescence, 13 days and 61 days following the end of a narrow outburst. The spectral wavelength ranges were centered on three different line regions: N V (1238 Å, 1242 Å), Si III (1300 Å), and He II (1640 Å). All of the quiescent spectra at both epochs are dominated by absorption lines and show no emission features. The Si III and He II absorption-line velocities versus orbital phase trace the orbital motion of the white dwarf, but the N V absorption velocities appear to deviate from the white dwarf motion. We confirm our previously reported low white dwarf rotational velocity, V sin i = 100 km s^-1. We obtain a white dwarf orbital velocity semiamplitude K₁ = 107 km s^-1. Using the γ-velocity of Wade, we obtain an Einstein redshift of 80.4 km s^-1 and hence a carbon core white dwarf mass of ~1.1 M_⊙. We report the first subsolar chemical abundances of C and Si for U Gem with C/H = 0.05 times solar, almost certainly a result of C depletion due to thermonuclear processing. This C depletion is discussed within the framework of a weak thermonuclear runaway, contamination of the secondary during the common envelope phase, and mixing of C-depleted white dwarf gas with C-depleted matter deposited during a dwarf nova event. Remarkably, the T_eff of the white dwarf 13 days after outburst is only 32,000 K, anomalously cooler than previous early postoutburst measurements. Extensive cooling during an extraordinarily long (210 days) quiescence followed by accretion onto an out-of-equilibrium cooled degenerate could explain the lower T_eff.

Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.