Radial velocity study of the post-period minimum cataclysmic variable SDSS J143317.78+101123.3 with an electron-multiplying CCD

Abstract

We present high time-resolution spectroscopy of the eclipsing cataclysmic variable SDSS J143317.78+101123.3 obtained with QUCAM2, a high-speed/low-noise electron-multiplying CCD camera. Littlefair et al. measured the mass of the secondary star in SDSS J143317.78+101123.3 using a light-curve fitting technique and obtained a value of M2 = 0.060 ± 0.003 M⊙ making it one of the three first bona fide detections of a brown dwarf mass donor in a cataclysmic variable. In this Letter, we present a dynamical measurement supporting this important result. We measured the radial velocity semi-amplitude of the white dwarf from the motion of the wings of the Hα emission line and obtained a figure of K1 = 34 ± 4 km s-1, in excellent agreement with the value of K1 = 35 ± 2 km s-1 predicted by Littlefair et al.'s model. © 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 RAS.