On the effect of explosive thermonuclear burning on the accreted envelopes of white dwarfs in cataclysmic variables

Abstract

The detection of heavy elements at suprasolar abundances in the atmospheres of some accreting white dwarfs in cataclysmic variables (CVs), coupled with the high temperatures needed to produce these elements, requires explosive thermonuclear burning. The central temperatures of any formerly more massive secondary stars in CVs undergoing hydrostatic CNO burning are far too low to produce these elements. Evidence is presented that at least some CVs contain donor secondaries that have been contaminated by white dwarf remnant burning during the common envelope phase and are transferring this material back to the white dwarf. This scenario does not exclude the channel in which formerly more massive donor stars underwent CNO processing in systems with thermal timescale mass transfer. Implications for the progenitors of CVs are discussed and a new scenario for the white dwarf's accretion-nova-outburst is given.