Multi-wavelength spectroscopic study of shock-driven phenomena in explosive outbursts in symbiotic-like recurrent novae with an emphasis on RS Ophiuchi

¹ Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie, Emil-Fischer-Str. 31, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
e-mail: alessandra.azzollini@uni-wuerzburg.de
² Dipartimento di Fisica “Enrico Fermi”, Università di Pisa, largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa, Italy
e-mail: steven.neil.shore@unipi.it
³ INFN – Sezione di Pisa, largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa, Italy
⁴ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6NT UK
⁵ School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH UK

Received: 11 October 2022
Accepted: 13 March 2023

Abstract

Aims. Our goal is to detail the development of RS Ophiuchi and the other Galactic symbiotic-like recurrent novae throughout their outburst and quiescence, with a particular emphasis on the propagation of the shock wave during the outburst of the binaries.

Methods. The spectral analysis has been performed using archival data according to the features of the individual datasets. Swift grism spectra were reduced and extracted using a combination of the pre-existing UVOTPY Python routine and newly written pipelines in Matlab. Other datasets were directly available in reduced form, already corrected for instrumental or background contamination, and calibrated in wavelength and flux or intensity. The work on these was done through pipelines suited for reading the data and elaborating them to extract quantities of interest for the analysis.

Results. We find striking similarities in different outbursts of the same object and for different novae. For example, RS Oph 2021 was almost identical to the 2006 outburst, despite having occurred at a different orbital phase with the observations made from a different line of sight through the red giant wind. Despite the intrinsically different properties of the binaries, striking similarities are found for different systems of the same class, for instance, the trend of the electron density over time during outburst appears to follow a general temporal development.