Critical tests of the hibernation scenario and the LT evolution

摘要

This project was a survey of a two square degree field in the Southern Milky Way for faint cataclysmic variables (CV's). The goal of the project was to determine the space density of faint CV's. Almost two million stars were catalogued and examined for color. The very bluest 50 objects were followed up spectrographically, and 13 were found to probably be cataclysmic. This represents a surface density 1000 times higher than that in all previous surveys for faint, blue objects. It supports the hibernation scenario of cataclysmic evolution, which posits that most novae spend most of their time in a very low mass transfer state.