Abstract
The cataclysmic variable AE Aquarii is a low-mass close binary system containing a red dwarf and a 33 s rotation period magnetic white dwarf which operates as a rotation-powered pulsar. The 33 s pulsations are detected in the optical, UV and X-rays. The 16.5 s harmonic is also present in the optical and UV. This pulsing emission comes from two hot spots (Tp ∼ 26000 K) located in the regions of magnetic poles on the white dwarf surface. The nature of the X-ray pulsations of AE Aqr is still under discussion. No 16.5 s harmonic in X-ray is observed and the luminosity of the pulsing component in X-rays is significantly smaller than the luminosity of the pulsing component in the optical and UV. We suggest that the source of pulsing X-ray emission is also located in the magnetic pole region at the surface of the white dwarf and can be associated with a hot spot (T ∼ 106 − 107 K). This spot is heated by the backflowing charged particles. However, the source of particles responsible for the heating the X-ray spot differs from the source of particles responsible for the heating the area emitting in the optical an UV.
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