What's cool about hot stars? Infrared observations of cataclysmic variables with the Spitzer Space Telescope

摘要

Cataclysmic variables have been extensively observed at optical, ultraviolet, and Xrayudwavelengths, where their white dwarf primary stars and bright accretion disks dominate theirudemitted luminosity. Comparatively little is known about the infrared properties of cataclysmic variables.udThe assumption that infrared observations would reveal only the “uninteresting” secondaryudstar has been shown to be false: recent infrared observations of cataclysmic variables have insteadudshown that cool dust in these interacting binaries is possibly the most important contributor toudtheir spectral energy distributions at long wavelengths. We present recent results from infraredudobservations of the cataclysmic variable EF Eridani obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope.