A Jansky VLA Survey of Magnetic Cataclysmic Variable Stars. I. The Data

Abstract

The Jansky Very Large Array was used to observe 121 magnetic cataclysmic variables (MCVs). We report radio detections of 18 stars. Thirteen are new radio sources, increasing the number of MCVs that are radio sources by more than twofold, from 8 to 21. Most detections are at 8.7 GHz (X-band) with a lesser number at 5.4 and 21.1 GHz (C- and K-bands). With the exception of AE Aqr, whose flux density is typically >5 mJy, the flux densities are in the range of 24–780 μ Jy. Thirteen of the detections show highly circularly polarized emission, which is characteristic of electron-cyclotron maser emission. The data suggest that MCVs could possibly be divided into two classes of radio emitters: those dominated by weakly polarized gyrosynchrotron emission and those by highly polarized electron-cyclotron maser emission.