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We have monitored the return to quiescence of novae previously observed in outburst as supersoft X-ray sources, with optical photometry of the intermediate polar (IP) V4743 Sgr and candidate IP V2491 Cyg, and optical spectroscopy of these two and seven other systems. Our sample includes classical and recurrent novae, short period (few hours), intermediate period (1-2 days) and long period (symbiotic) binaries. The light curves of V4743 Sgr and V2491 Cyg present clear periodic modulations. For V4743 Sgr, the modulation occurs with the beat of the rotational and orbital periods. If the period measured for V2491 Cyg is also the beat of these two periods, the orbital one should be almost 17 hours. The recurrent nova T Pyx already shows fragmentation of the nebular shell less than 3 years after the outburst. While this nova still had strong [O iii] at this post-outburst epoch, these lines had already faded after 3 to 7 years in all the others. We did not find any difference in the ratio of equivalent widths of high ionization/excitation lines to that of the Hβ line in novae with short and long orbital period, indicating that irradiation does not trigger high mass transfer rateṁ from secondaries with small orbital separation. An important difference between the spectra of RS Oph and V3890 Sgr and those of many symbiotic persistent supersoft sources is the absence of forbidden coronal lines. With the X-rays turn-off, we interpret this as an indication that mass transfer in symbiotics recurrent novae is intermittent.

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We analyse spectroscopic and photometric observations of the eclipsing polar BS Tri. The polar’s light curve shape variations can be interpreted by changing contributions of the accretion stream to the integral radiation of the system. Based on the radial velocity curves of the irradiated part of the secondary, we refine the masses of the system components, M1 = 0.60 ± 0.04M⊙, M2 ≈ 0.12M⊙, and the orbital inclination, i = 85 ± 0.5○. The polar’s spectra reveal cyclotron harmonics forming in an accretion spot with a magnetic field strength of B = 22.7 ± 0.4 MG and an average temperature of T ∼ 10 keV. In addition to the cyclotron harmonics, the BS Tri spectra contain Zeeman components of Hα line, which are probably formed in the cool halo near the accretion spot. The orientation of the magnetic dipole and the coordinates of the accretion spot are estimated by modeling the light curves of the polar. We show that for a satisfactory description of the BS Tri light curves we have to take into account the variability of the spot’s optical depth along the line of sight. Doppler maps of BS Tri show a part of the accretion stream with a trajectory close to ballistic near the Lagrange point L1, and another part of the stream moving along the magnetic field lines. The estimate of the stagnation region position found from the Doppler tomograms is consistent with the photometric estimates of the accretion spot position.

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