Free access article

A&A 485, 787-795 (2008)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20079341

The serendipituous discovery of a short-period eclipsing polar in 2XMMp

J. Vogel¹, K. Byckling², A. Schwope¹, J. P. Osborne², R. Schwarz¹, and M. G. Watson<sup>2

1</sup>  Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
    e-mail: jvogel@aip.de
²  Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK

Received 29 December 2007 / Accepted 9 April 2008

Abstract
We report the serendipituous discovery of the new eclipsing polar 2XMMp J131223.4+173659. Its striking X-ray light curve attracted immediate interest when we were visually inspecting the source products of the 2XMMp catalogue. This light curve revealed its likely nature as a magnetic cataclysmic variable of AM Herculis (or polar) type with an orbital period of ~92 min, which was confirmed by follow-up optical spectroscopy and photometry. 2XMMp J131223.4+173659 probably has a one-pole accretion geometry. It joins the group of now nine objects that show no evidence of a soft component in their X-ray spectra despite being in a high accretion state, thus escaping ROSAT/EUVE detection. We discuss the likely accretion scenario, the system parameters, and the spectral energy distribution.

Key words: X-rays: stars -- stars: binaries: eclipsing -- stars: novae, cataclysmic variables -- X-rays: binaries

© ESO 2008

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