Bradley E. Schaefer Louisiana State University

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COMPREHENSIVE PHOTOMETRIC HISTORIES OF ALL KNOWN
GALACTIC RECURRENT NOVAE
Bradley E. Schaefer (Louisiana State University)
OVERVIEW I collect virtually all photometry of
the ten known galactic recurrent novae (RNe) and
their 37 known eruptions. This consists of my
modern measures of nearly all archival plates
(providing the only data for half of 37 known
eruptions), my own 10,000 CCD magnitudes from
1987 to present (providing virtually all of the
magnitudes in quiescence for seven RNe), over
140,000 visual magnitude estimates recorded by
amateur astronomers (who discovered half the
known eruptions), and the small scattering of
magnitudes from all the literature. From this, I
produce various uniform products (1) BVRIJHK
comparison star magnitudes and BV comparison star
sequences to cover the entire range of eruption,
(2) complete light curves for all eruptions, (3)
best fit B and V light curve templates, (4)
orbital periods for all-but-one RN, (5)
exhaustive searches for all missed eruptions, (6)
measured discovery efficiencies since 1890, (7)
true recurrence time scales, (8) predicted next
eruption dates, (9) variations on time scales of
minutes, hours, days, months, years, decades, and
century, (10) uniform distances and extinctions
to all RNe, (11) BV colors at peak and UBVRIJHK
colors at minimum all with extinction
corrections, and (12) the spectral energy
distributions over UBVRIJHK. Highlights of this
work include the discoveries of one new RN, six
previously-undiscovered eruptions, and the
discovery of the orbital periods for half the
RNe. The goal of this work is to provide uniform
demographics for answering questions like What
is the death rate of RNe in our galaxy?' and Are
the white dwarfs gaining or losing mass over each
eruption cycle?'. An important use of this work
is for the question of whether RNe can be the
progenitors of Type Ia supernovae.
HIGHLIGHTS DISCOVERIES ?One New
Recurrent Nova -- V2487 Oph with eruptions in
1900 and 1998 ?Five Orbital Periods --
V745 Sco with Porb51020, V3890 Sgr with
Porb519.70.3, V394 CrA with Porb1.5156820.000
008, U Sco with Porb1.23056310.0000030, T Pyx
with Porb0.076160.00017 ?Six
Previously-Undiscovered Eruptions -- U Sco in
1917, 1945, 1969 RS Oph in 1907 V2487 Oph in
1900 CI Aql in 1941 ?Sharp Drops in
Eruption Light Curves -- U Sco at 33 days T Pyx
at 85 days RESULTS ?U Sco will Erupt
Any Month Now -- Join our large collaboration of
observers now prepared for intensive study of
the upcoming eruption! ?Four other RNe
will erupt in next decade -- Intensive monitoring
needed for V2487 Oph, V394 CrA, V745 Sco, and
V3890 Sgr ?RS Oph Red Giant is
Filling its Roche Lobe ?Five Reliable
Distances based on Companion Star -- U Sco at
120002000 pc, T CrB at 800140 pc, RS Oph at
4300700 pc, V745 Sco at 73001200 pc, V3890 Sgr
at 60001000 pc ?Horrifyingly Low
Discovery Efficiencies -- 4 median efficiency
for undirected searches (0.6 to 19 full
range) 60 median efficiency for directed
searches (30 to 100 full range). This means
that 80 so-called classical novae currently
(out of the 300 novae now in catalogs) are
really RNe with undiscovered nova events in the
last century.
COMPLETE LIGHT CURVES FOR ALL ERUPTIONS - Plus
Templates (on modern magnitude scale)
LIGHT CURVES DURING QUIESCENCE
T CrB
Zamanov et al. (2004)