The 'living' catalogue by Ritter and Kolb lists coordinates, apparent magnitudes, orbital parameters, stellar parameters of the components and other characteristic properties of cataclysmic binaries, low-mass X-ray binaries and related objects with known or suspected orbital periods, together with a comprehensive selection of the relevant recent literature. In addition, the catalogue contains a list of references to published finding charts for a subset of the objects, and a cross-reference list of alias object designations. The current edition has entries for 1166 CVs, 105 LMXBs, and 500 related objects.
The observations of binary stars, especially of low-mass X-ray binaries document different accretion regimes where soft and hard radiation is present in very different amounts, indicating main contributions from an optically thick accretion disk or from a hot optically thin corona. The understanding of how the different spectral states are caused is one of the research areas at the MPA.
Related groups:
High Energy Astrophysics / Accretion physics
High Energy Astrophysics / X-ray binaries
Collaborations:
Ulrich Kolb, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
Bifang Liu, National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Beijing
Vadim Burwitz, MPE, Garching
Useful links:
The Ritter-Catalog: CV/LMXB/related objects catalog 7th edition
A Catalog and Atlas of Cataclysmic Variables - The Living Edition
AAVSO
BAA Variable Star Section
The Astronomer's Telegram
Center for Backyard Astrophysics
