Six New Eclipsing AM CVn Binaries from the Zwicky Transient Facility
Abstract
We present the discovery of six new eclipsing AM CVn binaries, helium-accreting ultracompact systems in which a cool donor eclipses the accreting white dwarf. The systems were found in a GPU-accelerated Box Least Squares (BLS) search of Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) photometry and have orbital periods of 39.3 to 59.9 minutes. We obtained spectroscopy with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) on the Keck I telescope for all six systems, and every spectrum shows helium emission with no detectable hydrogen, confirming their AM CVn classification. Our discoveries increase the number of deeply eclipsing AM CVn from 11 to 17 (i.e., systems in which the accreting white dwarf is both the dominant source of optical light and eclipsed by the donor). With high-speed photometric follow-up, these systems will provide the mass ratios, inclinations, and fractional radii of both components. They will also provide new tests of AM CVn formation models and stronger constraints on the long-term evolution of these sources.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{householder2026eclipsing,
title = {{Six New Eclipsing AM CVn Binaries from the Zwicky Transient Facility}},
author = {Aaron Householder and Kevin B. Burdge and Yapeng Zhang and Emma Chickles and Jan van Roestel and Matthew J. Green and Kaley Brauer and Joheen Chakraborty and Jack Dinsmore and Gabor Furesz and Juliana García-Mejía and Matthew J. Graham and Aurora Y. Kesseli and Shrinivas R. Kulkarni and Christopher Layden and Geoffrey Mo and David Osip and Roger W. Romani and Andrew Vanderburg},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.40346},
eprint = {2610.40346},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40346},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Six New Eclipsing AM CVn Binaries from the Zwicky Transient Facility
AU - Aaron Householder
AU - Kevin B. Burdge
AU - Yapeng Zhang
AU - Emma Chickles
AU - Jan van Roestel
AU - Matthew J. Green
AU - Kaley Brauer
AU - Joheen Chakraborty
AU - Jack Dinsmore
AU - Gabor Furesz
AU - Juliana García-Mejía
AU - Matthew J. Graham
AU - Aurora Y. Kesseli
AU - Shrinivas R. Kulkarni
AU - Christopher Layden
AU - Geoffrey Mo
AU - David Osip
AU - Roger W. Romani
AU - Andrew Vanderburg
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.40346
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40346
AB - We present the discovery of six new eclipsing AM CVn binaries, helium-accreting ultracompact systems in which a cool donor eclipses the accreting white dwarf. The systems were found in a GPU-accelerated Box Least Squares (BLS) search of Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) photometry and have orbital periods of 39.3 to 59.9 minutes. We obtained spectroscopy with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) on the Keck I telescope for all six systems, and every spectrum shows helium emission with no detectable hydrogen, confirming their AM CVn classification. Our discoveries increase the number of deeply eclipsing AM CVn from 11 to 17 (i.e., systems in which the accreting white dwarf is both the dominant source of optical light and eclipsed by the donor). With high-speed photometric follow-up, these systems will provide the mass ratios, inclinations, and fractional radii of both components. They will also provide new tests of AM CVn formation models and stronger constraints on the long-term evolution of these sources.
ER -