The Rotation Rates of White Dwarfs and Pulsars

Abstract

We examine the question of why the white dwarfs in dwarf nova systems arefound to be rotating much more slowly than expected. We propose amodel in which the accreted angular momentum is removed during novaoutbursts. We find that the efficiency of transport of angular momentumbetween the white dwarf and the extended nova envelope is ratherlow. We show that in using the same efficiency for the core-envelopecoupling in giant stars we can explain the initial spins of pulsars.