IR Geminorum: Complex Disk Behavior During Quiescence

Abstract

AbstractWe have carried out nearly continuous V-band photometry from Yunnan Observatory (China) and Behlen Observatory (Nebraska, USA) of IR Gem for over six days starting three days after a normal outburst in January 2002. Our observations show that the behavior of this SU UMa star is unexpectedly complicated, and that for IR Gem, quiescence is potentially more interesting than outbursts. We find a photometric modulation with a period of 98.5 min, exactly equal to the spectroscopically determined orbital period. We tentatively attribute this to heating of the secondary. During the first three days a modulation appeared with a period 5% longer than the orbital period. We suggest that this might be a signature of apsidal precession of an eccentric disk. During the middle of our period of observations a modulation with a period 3% shorter than the orbital period appeared. We invoke nodal precession to explain this. A slower modulation we found with a period of about 1.7 d is roughly consistent with the expected period of nodal precession. There is a puzzling 4.3 d period modulation that we suspect may be the result of beating between apsidal and nodal precession frequencies. We also find inexplicable quasi-periodic cycles on timescales drifting from ~ 0.2 to ~ 0.4 days.