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PCEBs from the SDSS testing disrupted magnetic braking. Matthias Schreiber. Boris T. Gaensicke, John Southworth, S. Stylianos (Warwick) A. Rebassa-Mansergas (Valparaiso) M. Zorotovic-Fiebig, C. Tappert (PUC Santiago) L. Schmidtobreik (ESO) A. D. Schwope, A. Nebot Gomez-Moran (AIP).
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PCEBs from the SDSStesting disrupted magnetic braking Matthias Schreiber • Boris T. Gaensicke, John Southworth, S. Stylianos (Warwick) • A. Rebassa-Mansergas (Valparaiso) • M. Zorotovic-Fiebig, C. Tappert (PUC Santiago) • L. Schmidtobreik (ESO) • A. D. Schwope, A. Nebot Gomez-Moran (AIP) Tucson, March-2009
The orbital period distribution of CVs Ritter & Kolb (2003)
MWB+GR GR 1983: Disrupted magnetic braking (DMB) Two angular momentum loss mechanisms: magnetic wind braking & gravitational radiation Paczynski & Sienkiewicz; Spruit & Ritter; Rappaport et al. (1983)
DMB: believe it or not • Pros: • - Mean mass transfer rates of CVs • (Townsley & Gaensicke 2008) • Donor star mass-radius relation • (e.g. Knigge 2006) • Cons: • Spin down rates of low-mass stars in open clusters • (Sills et al. 2000) • Large scale magnetic fields in fully convective stars • (Donati et al. 2006)
Predicted PCEB fractions Politano & Weiler (2006)
WDMS and PCEBs from the SDSS • SEGUE and SDSS identified ~2000 WDMS • We followed-up 285 • - 111 PCEBs identified (~39%) • 54 orbital periods measured (see next talk)
Comparing predictions and observations Politano & Weiler (2006)
Disrupted braking in single old field M dwarfs • fast fully convective rotators in old field stars • - not a single early M fast rotator • (Reiners et al. 2008) • change in the magnetic field topology at ~M3.5 • (Donati et al. 2008)
Conclusion Disrupted braking confirmed!
Remaining questions Why does braking get disrupted? How strong is AML below the gap? Why is it different in young stars?
3 good reasons to believe in DMB • - Mean mass transfer rates of CVs • (Townsley & Gaensicke 2008) • Expanded secondaries above the gap • (e.g. Knigge et al. 2006)
Selection effects Bias towards low mass secondaries Bias towards short orbital periods