THE 2011 ERUPTION OF THE RECURRENT NOVA T PYXIDIS: THE DISCOVERY, THE PRE-ERUPTION RISE, THE PRE-ERUPTION ORBITAL PERIOD, AND THE REASON FOR THE LONG DELAY

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 773; no. 1; pp. 1 - 23
• Main Authors: Schaefer, Bradley E, Landolt, Arlo U, LINNOLT, MICHAEL, Stubbings, Rod, Pojmanski, Grzegorz, Plummer, Alan, Kerr, Stephen, Nelson, Peter, Carstens, Rolf, Streamer, Margaret, Richards, Tom, Myers, Gordon, Dillon, William G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 10.08.2013
• Subjects: Accretion disks; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; Blackbody; Delay; ENERGY SPECTRA; ERUPTION; FILTERS; Flux; MASS TRANSFER; Nova; NOVAE; Observers; Orbitals; Photometry; SPHERES; TIME RESOLUTION; ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION; VISIBLE RADIATION
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/55

We report the discovery by M. Linnolt on JD 2,455,665.7931 (UT 2011 April 14.29) of the sixth eruption of the recurrent nova T Pyxidis. This discovery was made just as the initial fast rise was starting, so with fast notification and response by observers worldwide, the entire initial rise was covered (the first for any nova), and with high time resolution in three filters. We present 19 timings of photometric minima from 1986 to 2011 February, where the orbital period is fast increasing with P/P = +313,000 yr. We report 6116 magnitudes between 1890 and 2011, for an average B = 15.59 + or - 0.01 from 1967 to 2011, which allows for an eruption in 2011 if the blue flux is nearly proportional to the accretion rate. We prove that most of the T Pyx light is not coming from a disk, or any superposition of blackbodies, but rather is coming from some nonthermal source.