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intermediate polar

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intermediate polar

[‚in·tər′mēd·ē·ət ′pōl·ər]
(astronomy)
A member of a class of cataclysmic variable stars whose x-ray and optical light curves display large pulses on time scales of minutes. Also known as DQ Herculis star.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive
First identified as a magnetic CV in the late 1980s, V2301 Oph was initially thought to be an intermediate polar (IP), as observations seemed to show the presence of a small accretion disc.
The ever changing light curve is quite fascinating and reminiscent of that of a DQ Her type star (intermediate polar).
From reports by others and timeseries photometry at Bronberg most of these turn out to be magnetic CVs, mainly DQ Her stars (intermediate polars).
Based on X-ray observations, they suggested the system might be an intermediate polar.
In this regard it resembles the intermediate polar HT Cam, which shows a fair amount of variability during quiescence.
From unfiltered time resolved photometry, we measured the white dwarf spin period of the intermediate polar 1RXS J063631.9+353537 as [P.sub.spin] = 1008.3(5)s.
By contrast, in the family of CVs known as Intermediate Polars (IPs), the magnetic field of the white dwarf is sufficient to disrupt the inner portion of the accretion disc.
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