Modelling the recurrent nova CI Aql in quiescence

Institut für Astrophysik der Leopold–Franzens–Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Corresponding author: S. Kimeswenger, stefan.kimeswenger@uibk.ac.at

Received: 16 August 2002
Accepted: 30 September 2002

Abstract

We present detailed photometric investigations of the recurrent nova CI Aql. New data obtained after the 2000 outburst are used to derive a 3D geometrical model of the system. The resulting light curves clearly indicate the existence of an asymmetric spray around the accretion disk, as claimed in the past e.g. for the super-soft X-ray source CAL87 in the LMC. The simulated light curves give us the mass transfer rates varying from in 1991–1996 to in 2001/2002. The distance and the interstellar foreground extinction resulting from the model are 1.55 kpc and respectively. During fast photometry sequences in 2002 short timescale variations ( min) of the mass loss are found. Moreover a change in the orbital period of the system is detectable and results in a mass loss of during the nova explosion.