SDSS J105754.25+275947.5: A period-bounce eclipsing cataclysmic variable with the lowest-mass donor yet measured

Abstract

We present high-speed, multicolour photometry of the faint, eclipsing cataclysmic variable (CV) SDSS J105754.25+275947.5. The light from this system is dominated by the white dwarf. Nonetheless, averaging many eclipses reveals additional features from the eclipse of the bright spot. This enables the fitting of a parametrized eclipse model to these average light curves, allowing the precise measurement of system parameters. We find a mass ratio of q = 0.0546 ± 0.0020 and inclination i=85.74 ± 0.21°. The white dwarf and donor masses were found to be Mw =0.800 ± 0.015M⊙ and Md =0.0436 ± 0.0020M⊙, respectively. A temperature Tw = 13300 ± 1100 K and distance d=367 ± 26 pc of the white dwarf were estimated through fitting model atmosphere predictions to multicolour fluxes. The mass of the white dwarf in SDSS 105754.25+275947.5 is close to the average for CV white dwarfs, while the donor has the lowest mass yet measured in an eclipsing CV. A low-mass donor and an orbital period (90.44 min) significantly longer than the period minimum strongly suggest that this is a bona fide period-bounce system, although formation from a white dwarf/brown dwarf binary cannot be ruled out. Very few period-minimum/period-bounce systems with precise system parameters are currently known, and as a consequence the evolution of CVs in this regime is not yet fully understood.