Hubble Space Telescope and Optical Observations of Three Pulsating Accreting White Dwarfs in Cataclysmic Variables

Abstract

Ultraviolet observations using the Solar Blind Channel on the Hubble Space Telescope provide light curves and low-resolution spectra of three pulsating white dwarfs in the cataclysmic variables SDSS J013132.39-090122.3, SDSS J161033.64-010223.3, and SDSS J220553.98+115553.7. The UV light curves show enhanced pulsation amplitudes over those from simultaneous and previous optical photometry, while the UV-optical spectra are fit with white dwarf temperatures near 15,000 K. These temperatures place the accreting white dwarfs outside the instability zone for noninteracting DAV white dwarfs and show that the instability strip is complex for accreting white dwarfs. © 2007. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.