Comprehensive catalogue of the overall best distances and properties of 402 galactic novae

Abstract

I derive the overall best distances for all 402 known galactic novae, and I collect their many properties. The centrepiece is the 74 novae with accurate parallaxes from the new Gaia data release. For the needed priors, I have collected 171 distances based on old methods (including expansion parallaxes and extinction distances). Further, I have collected the V-magnitudes at peak and the extinction measures, so as to produce absolute magnitudes at peak and then derive a crude distance as a prior. Further, I have recognized that 41 per cent of the known novae are concentrated in the bulge, with 68 per cent of these <5.4○ from the galactic centre, so the 165 bulge novae must have distances of 8000±750 parsecs. Putting this all together, I have derived distances to all 402 novae, of which 220 have distances to an accuracy of better than 30 per cent. I find that the disc novae have an exponential scale height of 140±10 pc. The average peak absolute V-magnitude is -7.45, with an RMS scatter of 1.33 mag. These peak luminosities are significantly correlated with the decline rate (t3 in days) as MV, peak = −7.6 + 1.5log (t3/30). The huge scatter about this relation masks the correlation in many smaller datasets, and makes this relation useless for physical models. The bulge novae are indistinguishable from the disc novae in all properties, except that the novae with red giant companion stars have a strong preference for residing in the bulge population.

Gamma rays from Nebulae around Recurrent Novae

“…Rupen, Mioduszewski, & Sokoloski (2008) estimated the distance to RS Oph on (2.45±0.37) kpc (see also Bailer-Jones et al 2021). This value is also very similar to the distance derived with the Gaia DR3-derived parallax: 2.68 +0.17 −0.15 kpc (see also Schaefer 2022, Munari et al 2022. Multiple, partially contradicting distance measurements are available (see the discussion in Acciari et al 2022).…”

The B & V Light Curves for Recurrent Nova T CrB From 1842--2022, the Unique Pre- and Post-Eruption High-States, the Complex Period Changes, and the Upcoming Eruption in 2025.5$\pm$1.3

“…During eruption, the 𝐵 − 𝑉 can be found from the light curves in Schaefer (2010). We have no direct measure of the colour at peak light, but this is (𝐵 − 𝑉) peak =+0.11 mag for apparently all classical novae (Schaefer 2022c), while T CrB has near-zero extinction due to its high Galactic latitude and small distance. So we now have a method for converting from the observed 𝑚 vis to 𝑉.…”

“…The blackbody alone is shown as a narrow grey line that merges with the total curve redward of the 𝐵 band (because the red giant dominates greatly over disc light). The standard 𝛼-disc model gives the flux across frequencies (Frank et al 2002) where I have adopted a distance of 914 pc (Schaefer 2022c), 𝐸 (𝐵 −𝑉)=0.065 from Galex, a white dwarf mass of 1.35 M (Shara et al 2018;Hachisu & Kato 2019), a mass ratio of 0.60 (Belczyński & Mikołajewska 1998), a disc size of 22 per cent of the white dwarf Roche lobe size (Eq. 4.20 Frank et al 2002), an orbital period of 227 days, and an orbital inclination of 60 • (Belczyński & Mikołajewska 1998).…”

“…Second, the factor of 4𝜋𝐷 2 is used to get units of erg s −1 Hz −1 . Here, I adopt the distance to T CrB of 914 pc (Schaefer 2022c). Third, the converted flux must be multiplied by the bandwidth, in Hertz, to get the luminosity in that band.…”

The multi-wavelength view of shocks in the fastest nova V1674 Her

“…The ignition leads to a dramatic expansion and ejection of the white dwarf atmosphere at typical velocities of ∼500-5000 km/s -a hallmark feature of the nova phenomenon recognized since the earliest days of spectroscopy (Pickering 1895;McLaughlin 1956;Aydi et al 2020b). The expanded atmosphere leads to a dramatic, albeit temporary, increase in the optical brightness of the host binary system by ∼ 8-15 mag (Vogt 1990;Warner 2008;Kawash et al 2021), reaching absolute magnitudes of −4 to −10 mag (Shafter 2017;Shafter et al 2009;Schaefer 2022). While the optical continuum light of a nova fades on a time-scale of days to months, the warm ejected envelope remains the source of optical line and radio continuum emission for months and years after the eruption (Strope et al 2010;Chomiuk et al 2021b).…”