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Eclipse mapping and related techniques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

René G. M. Rutten
René G. M. Rutten*
Affiliation:
Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy, and Royal Greenwich Observatory Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, La Palma, SPAIN

Abstract

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Eclipse mapping is a technique to deduce spatial structure on very small angular scales in eclipsing cataclysmic variable stars (CVs). By analysing the eclipse light curve, information is obtained on the brightness structure of the accretion disk and of the compact mass-accreting object in these systems. This information would otherwise be well beyond the resolving power of any optical telescope. Since the development of the eclipse mapping technique by K. Horne, about one decade ago, it has now become an important tool in the study of CVs. Originally eclipse mapping was employed to construct brightness maps of accretion disks in broad spectral bands. Recently, maps of much higher spectral resolution have become available from which optical and UV spectra have been reconstructed in spatial detail across accretion disks. Such information is very important for our understanding of the physics of the accretion process.

In this paper I will describe the eclipse mapping technique and review recent results. In conjunction, I will briefly highlight other techniques related to the mapping of surface structure in CVs.

Type
Session I: “Stellar Surface Mapping Techniques”
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 176: Stellar Surface Structure , 1996 , pp. 69 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1996 

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