Abstract

The distribution of the mass of white dwarfs (WDs) is one of the fundamental questions in the field of cataclysmic variables (CVs). In this work, we make a systematical investigation on the WD masses in two subclass of CVs: intermediate polars (IPs) and non-magnetic CVs in the solar vicinity based on the flux ratios of Fe xxvi–Lyα to Fe xxv–Heα emission lines (I 7.0/I 6.7) from archival XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations. We first verify the (semi-empirical) relations between I 7.0/I 6.7, the maximum emission temperature (T max) and the WD mass (M WD) with the mkcflow model based on the apec description and the latest AtomDB. We then introduce a new spectral model to measure M WD directly based on the above relations. A comparison shows that the derived M WD is consistent with dynamically measured ones. Finally, we obtain the average WD masses of 58 CVs (including 36 IPs and 22 non-magnetic CVs), which is the largest X-ray selected sample. The average WD masses are 〈M WD,IP〉 = 0.81 ± 0.21 M ⊙ and for IPs and non-magnetic CVs, respectively. These results are consistent with previous works.

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