FS aur as a permanent superhump system

Abstract

We discovered that the short period cataclysmic variable FS Aur at some epochs shows a photometric period close to the orbital. It exceeds the orbital period by 2%, which is a sign of the presence of a permanent superhump in the system. Superhumps tend to appear near short, low amplitude outbursts. We assume that FS Aur possesses a large thermally stable accretion disc and that the outburst may be due to the variable mass transfer rate. This, however, does not alter our previous explanation of yet another, 2.4 times longer than orbital, photometric period of FS Aur, found earlier, and persistently observed in its light curves. © Copyright 2004: IA, UNAM.