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arXiv · 2406.03948

The Perils of Pdot

Andrew King·Jean-Pierre Lasota
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Abstract

Schaefer (2024) has recently published observations of binary period derivatives $\dot P$ for 52 cataclysmic variables, and concluded that these strongly conflict with all proposed evolutionary pictures for these systems. We point out once again that using measurements of $\dot P$ is likely in practice to produce misleading evolutionary constraints in almost every case. The one identified exception to this is probably the recently-born X-ray binary SN 2022jli, because of its extremely high mass transfer rate.

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Andrew King, Jean-Pierre Lasota. 2024-06-06. The Perils of Pdot. https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.03948

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