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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The long period radio transient ASKAP J1448−68 is a cataclysmic variable

  • Geoffrey Mo1,2
  • Akash Anumarlapudi3
  • Iris de Ruiter4,5
  • Kareem El-Badry2
  • David L Kaplan6
  • Antonio C Rodriguez7
  • Ilaria Caiazzo8
  • Kaitlyn Shin2
  • Anthony L Piro1
  • Tim Cunningham9
  • Daniel D Kelson1
9 affiliations
  1. 1The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara St., Pasadena, CA 91101 ,
  2. 2California Institute of Technology Department of Astronomy, , 1216 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125 ,
  3. 3University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , 120 E. Cameron Ave., Chapel Hill, NC 27514 ,
  4. 4Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, The University of Sydney , NSW 2006 ,
  5. 5ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) , Hawthorn, Victoria, 3122 ,
  6. 6University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Gravitation, Cosmology, and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, and Astronomy, , PO Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201 ,
  7. 7Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden St, Cambridge, MA 02138 ,
  8. 8Institute of Science and Technology Austria , Am Campus 1, 3400, Klosterneuburg ,
  9. 9University of Warwick Department of Physics, , Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL ,
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Abstract

Wide-field time-domain radio surveys have recently unveiled a new class of Galactic radio emitter: long period radio transients (LPTs). Despite the rapid pace of discovery, their origins remain poorly understood, with two main theories emerging: slowly spinning magnetars or binary white dwarfs (WDs) with magnetic interactions. All three LPTs with well-characterised optical counterparts are WDs in binary systems, but even within that class there is diversity, with one accreting and two detached systems. In this Letter, we show that the LPT ASKAP J1448-68 is a cataclysmic variable (CV)—a WD accreting from a low-mass companion—with a spectroscopic orbital period consistent with the radio pulse period, and specifically, potentially consistent with being a polar. Unlike the other known LPT CV, ASKAP J1448-68 does not exhibit the He ii emission that is a hallmark of magnetic CVs in their high accretion states. We also present new optical time-series and infrared photometric observations, showing flickering at the 10% level and suggesting a possible period bouncer origin. This identification of ASKAP J1448-68 adds to the small sample of characterised LPT counterparts, and shows that LPT emission can persist in an accreting WD binary at a low accretion rate.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{mo2026long,
  title = {{The long period radio transient ASKAP J1448−68 is a cataclysmic variable}},
  author = {Geoffrey Mo and Akash Anumarlapudi and Iris de Ruiter and Kareem El-Badry and David L Kaplan and Antonio C Rodriguez and Ilaria Caiazzo and Kaitlyn Shin and Anthony L Piro and Tim Cunningham and Daniel D Kelson},
  journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag2088},
  url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2088/9012725},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - The long period radio transient ASKAP J1448−68 is a cataclysmic variable
AU  - Geoffrey Mo
AU  - Akash Anumarlapudi
AU  - Iris de Ruiter
AU  - Kareem El-Badry
AU  - David L Kaplan
AU  - Antonio C Rodriguez
AU  - Ilaria Caiazzo
AU  - Kaitlyn Shin
AU  - Anthony L Piro
AU  - Tim Cunningham
AU  - Daniel D Kelson
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/04
JO  - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO  - 10.1093/mnras/stag2088
UR  - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2088/9012725
AB  - Wide-field time-domain radio surveys have recently unveiled a new class of Galactic radio emitter: long period radio transients (LPTs). Despite the rapid pace of discovery, their origins remain poorly understood, with two main theories emerging: slowly spinning magnetars or binary white dwarfs (WDs) with magnetic interactions. All three LPTs with well-characterised optical counterparts are WDs in binary systems, but even within that class there is diversity, with one accreting and two detached systems. In this Letter, we show that the LPT ASKAP J1448-68 is a cataclysmic variable (CV)—a WD accreting from a low-mass companion—with a spectroscopic orbital period consistent with the radio pulse period, and specifically, potentially consistent with being a polar. Unlike the other known LPT CV, ASKAP J1448-68 does not exhibit the He ii emission that is a hallmark of magnetic CVs in their high accretion states. We also present new optical time-series and infrared photometric observations, showing flickering at the 10% level and suggesting a possible period bouncer origin. This identification of ASKAP J1448-68 adds to the small sample of characterised LPT counterparts, and shows that LPT emission can persist in an accreting WD binary at a low accretion rate.
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
ER  -