Nova V1674 Her as a fast magnetic rotator
Abstract
We report on the results of our XMM-Newton and NuSTAR campaign targeting V1674 Her in October 2023. These observations were timed to investigate the post-nova quiescent state 28 months after the 2021 outburst, although the optical luminosity was still slowly declining. The X-ray spectra are well-modeled by a multi-temperature thermal plasma. While in the best fit temperature we find that the highest plasma temperature is indicative of a massive white dwarf (MWD ≈ 1.35 M⊙), we caution that there is a degeneracy between the plasma temperature and the metallicity in the spectral fit, hindering a definitive constraint. Alternatively, the continuum can be phenomenologically described by a Comptonized component, although this model neglects the thermal bremsstrahlung component. Timing analysis reveals a stable 501.31 ± 0.19 s modulation in the post-quiescent phase, whose amplitude diminishes with increasing energy; this is quite typical in intermediate polars (IP). The phase alignment between the quiescent and early post-outburst Chandra spin-folded light curves suggests that the soft X-ray emission originates from the same polar regions, which quickly re-established accretion following the eruption. V1674 Her belongs to a growing class of novae that are also IPs, and is one of four in which the modulation with rotation was observed during the outburst supersoft X-ray phase. We propose that the fast rise in outburst was due to a fast or centrifugal magnetic rotator wind, causing rapid mass loss instead of the commonly assumed radiation pressure wind.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{luna2026nova,
title = {{Nova V1674 Her as a fast magnetic rotator}},
author = {G. J. M. Luna and M. Orio and A. Dobrotka and J. Magdolen},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.42132},
eprint = {2610.42132},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.42132},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Nova V1674 Her as a fast magnetic rotator
AU - G. J. M. Luna
AU - M. Orio
AU - A. Dobrotka
AU - J. Magdolen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.42132
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.42132
AB - We report on the results of our XMM-Newton and NuSTAR campaign targeting V1674 Her in October 2023. These observations were timed to investigate the post-nova quiescent state 28 months after the 2021 outburst, although the optical luminosity was still slowly declining. The X-ray spectra are well-modeled by a multi-temperature thermal plasma. While in the best fit temperature we find that the highest plasma temperature is indicative of a massive white dwarf (M_WD ≈ 1.35 M_⊙), we caution that there is a degeneracy between the plasma temperature and the metallicity in the spectral fit, hindering a definitive constraint. Alternatively, the continuum can be phenomenologically described by a Comptonized component, although this model neglects the thermal bremsstrahlung component. Timing analysis reveals a stable 501.31 ± 0.19 s modulation in the post-quiescent phase, whose amplitude diminishes with increasing energy; this is quite typical in intermediate polars (IP). The phase alignment between the quiescent and early post-outburst Chandra spin-folded light curves suggests that the soft X-ray emission originates from the same polar regions, which quickly re-established accretion following the eruption. V1674 Her belongs to a growing class of novae that are also IPs, and is one of four in which the modulation with rotation was observed during the outburst supersoft X-ray phase. We propose that the fast rise in outburst was due to a fast or centrifugal magnetic rotator wind, causing rapid mass loss instead of the commonly assumed radiation pressure wind.
ER -