HS2331+3905: The cataclysmic variable that has it all

Abstract

We report detailed follow-up observations of the cataclysmic variable HS2331+3905, identified as an emission-line object in the Hamburg Quasar Survey. An orbital period of 81.08min is unambiguously determined from the detection of eclipses in the light curves of HS2331+3905. A second photometric period is consistently detected at P~83.38min, ~2.8% longer than the orbital period, which we tentatively relate to the presence of permanent superhumps. High time resolution photometry exhibits short-timescale variability on time scales of 5-6min which we interpret as non-radial white dwarf pulsations, as well as a coherent signal at 1.12min, which is likely to be the white dwarf spin period. A large-amplitude quasi-sinusoidal radial velocity modulation of the Balmer and Helium lines with a period ~3.5h is persistently detected throughout three seasons of time-resolved spectroscopy. However, this spectroscopic period, which is in no way related to the orbital period, is not strictly coherent but drifts in period and/or phase on time scales of a few days. Modeling the far-ultraviolet to infrared spectral energy distribution of HS2331+3905, we determine a white dwarf temperature of Teff=10500K (assuming Mwd=0.6Msun), close to the ZZ Ceti instability strip of single white dwarfs. The spectral model implies a distance of d=90+-15pc, and a low value for the distance is supported by the large proper motion of the system, mu=0.14"/yr. The non-detection of molecular bands and the low J, H, and K fluxes of HS2331+3905 make this object a very likely candidate for a brown-dwarf donor.