Research Note

Virtual Observatory based identification of AX J194939+2631 as a new cataclysmic variable^⋆

¹ Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, LERMA, UMR 8112, 61 Av. de l’Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
e-mail: iz@sai.msu.ru
² Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Universitetskij pr., 13, 119992 Moscow, Russia
³ Observatoire de Paris, VO-Paris Data Centre, 61 Av. de l’Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
⁴ Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg, UMR 7550, Université de Strasbourg/CNRS, 11 rue de l’Université, 67000 Strasbourg, France

Received: 11 August 2010
Accepted: 11 October 2010

Abstract

We report the discovery of a new cataclysmic variable (CV) among unidentified objects from the ASCA Galactic Plane Survey made using the Virtual Observatory data mining. First, we identified AX J194939+2631 with IPHAS J194938.39+263149.2, the only prominent Hα emitter among 400 sources in a 1 arcmin field of the IPHAS survey, then secured as a single faint X-ray source found in an archival Chandra dataset. Spectroscopic follow-up with the 3.5-m Calar Alto telescope confirmed its classification as a CV, possibly of magnetic nature. Our analysis suggests that AX J194939+2631 is a medium distance system (d ≈ 0.6 kpc) containing a late-K or early-M type dwarf as a secondary component and a partially disrupted accretion disc revealed by the double-peaked Hα line. However, additional deep observations are needed to confirm our tentative classification of this object as an intermediate polar.