The fainter the better: Cataclysmic variable stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Abstract

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has identified a total of 212 cataclysmic variables, most of which are fainter than 18th magnitude. This is the deepest and most populous homogeneous sample of cataclysmic variables to date, and we are undertaking a project to characterise this population. We have found that the SDSS sample is dominated by a great "silent majority" of old and faint CVs. We detect, for the first time, a population spike at the minimum period of 80 min which has been predicted by theoretical studies for over a decade. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.