The X-ray and optical emission of the intermediate polar Swift J0614.0+1709

@misc{rawat2026xray,
  title = {{The X-ray and optical emission of the intermediate polar Swift J0614.0+1709}},
  author = {Nikita Rawat and Domitilla De Martino and David A. H. Buckley and Koji Mukai and Martina Veresvarska and Zackery A. Irving and Simone Scaringi and Nicola Masetti},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.00612},
  eprint = {2610.00612},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00612},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - The X-ray and optical emission of the intermediate polar Swift J0614.0+1709
AU  - Nikita Rawat
AU  - Domitilla De Martino
AU  - David A. H. Buckley
AU  - Koji Mukai
AU  - Martina Veresvarska
AU  - Zackery A. Irving
AU  - Simone Scaringi
AU  - Nicola Masetti
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/01
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.00612
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00612
AB  - We present the first detailed X-ray and optical study of the intermediate polar Swift J0614.0+1709 based on a pointed XMM-Newton observation complemented by long-term optical photometry from TESS. A strong coherent modulation at the white dwarf spin period was detected in X-rays, with a period of ∼1411 s, confirming the magnetic nature of the system. The X-ray spin pulse exhibits a pronounced energy dependence, with the modulation amplitude decreasing towards higher energies, consistent with phase-dependent absorption in the accretion flow. Phase-resolved spectroscopy further shows that the spin variability is primarily driven by changes in the covering fraction of the partial-covering absorber. The broadband X-ray spectrum is well described by a partially absorbed thermal plasma model with a temperature of ∼12 keV and a soft blackbody component at ∼63 eV. The inferred bolometric luminosity of ∼5×10^34 erg s^−1 places the source among the more luminous intermediate polars. The TESS observations reveal substantial sector-to-sector variability in the relative strengths of the orbital and spin modulations. While the spin signal remains persistently dominant, the beat modulation varies significantly and disappears entirely in one Sector, suggesting temporal changes in the contribution of the reprocessing region(s). The orbital and, to a lesser extent, spin modulation amplitudes show some tendency to be stronger during brighter optical states, suggesting that changes in the mass transfer rate may influence the optical emission and modulation amplitudes. Overall, Swift J0614.0+1709 is a comparatively X-ray luminous intermediate polar exhibiting complex optical variability characterised by changes in pulse morphology and recurrent brightening events, making it a valuable target for future simultaneous optical and X-ray studies.
ER  -