Poster abstract details

Polars are binaries in which a main-sequence star transfers matter to a magnetic white-dwarf by an accretion column. FL Ceti is one of the few polars whose eclipse shape has enough precision to show unambiguously that the optical emission is dominated by two regions near the white-dwarf surface, probably the footprints of two accretion columns. The observations indicate that they have different physical conditions. Silva (2009) presents the curves of polarization and flux of FL Cet in high state. They corroborate the presence of two post-shock regions being one of them always visible. In this work, we use the code CYCLOPS (CYCLOtron Emission of PolarS, Costa & Rodrigues 2009) to obtain a picture of the system and an estimation of the geometrical and physicals parameters of post-shock regions of FL Cet. The CYCLOPS provides an inhomogeneous solution of the transfer radiation problem for a magnetized plasma in a 3D post-shock region. The code can consider distinct shock structures for each accretion column. The set of parameters that best fit the data in two bands is found using a genetic algorithm. As FL Cet is an eclipsing system, we developed a model of eclipse that can be used with CYCLOPS to define the geometrical parameters of the post-shock regions that explain simultaneously the eclipse profile, the polarization and light curves.

Costa, J. E. R. & Rodrigues, C. V. MNRAS, 2009
Silva, K. M. G. 2009, master thesis, INPE