SDSS J162520.29+120308.7 – a new SU Ursae Majoris star in the period gap

Abstract

We report results of an extensive world-wide observing campaign devoted to the recently discovered dwarf nova SDSS J162520.29+120308.7 (SDSS J1625). The data were obtained during the July 2010 eruption of the star and in August and September 2010 when the object was in quiescence. During the July 2010 superoutburst SDSS J1625 clearly displayed superhumps with a mean period of $P_{\rm sh}=0.095942(17)$ days ($138.16 \pm 0.02$ min) and a maximum amplitude reaching almost 0.4 mag. The superhump period was not stable, decreasing very rapidly at a rate of $\dot P = -1.63(14)\cdot 10^{-3}$ at the beginning of the superoutburst and increasing at a rate of $\dot P = 2.81(20)\cdot 10^{-4}$ in the middle phase. At the end of the superoutburst it stabilized around the value of $P_{\rm sh}=0.09531(5)$ day. During the first twelve hours of the superoutburst a low-amplitude double wave modulation was observed whose properties are almost identical to early superhumps observed in WZ Sge stars. The period of early superhumps, the period of modulations observed temporarily in quiescence and the period derived from radial velocity variations are the same within measurement errors, allowing us to estimate the most probable orbital period of the binary to be $P_{\rm orb}=0.09111(15)$ days ($131.20 \pm 0.22$ min). This value clearly indicates that SDSS J1625 is another dwarf nova in the period gap. Knowledge of the orbital and superhump periods allows us to estimate the mass ratio of the system to be $q\approx 0.25$. This high value poses serious problems both for the thermal and tidal instability (TTI) model describing the behaviour of dwarf novae and for some models explaining the origin of early superhumps.