A new way to find symbiotic stars: accretion disc detection with continuum survey photometry

ABSTRACT Symbiotic stars are binaries in which a cool and evolved star of luminosity class I–III accretes onto a smaller companion. However, direct accretion signatures like disc flickering and boundary layer X-rays are typically outshone or suppressed by the luminous giant, shell burning on the accreting white dwarf, and the illuminated wind nebula. We present a new way to find symbiotics that is less biased against directly detectable accretion discs than methods based on narrow-band H$\alpha$ photometry or objective prism plate surveys. We identified outliers in SkyMapper survey photometry, using reconstructed uvg snapshot colours and rapid variability among the three exposures of each 20-min SkyMapper Main Survey filter sequence, from a sample of 366 721 luminous red objects. We found that SkyMapper catalogue colours of large-amplitude pulsating giants must be corrected for variability, and that flickering is detectable with only three data points. Our methods probed a different region of parameter space than a recent search for accreting-only symbiotics in the GALAH survey, while being surprisingly concordant with another survey’s infrared detection algorithm. We discovered 12 new symbiotics, including four with optical accretion disc flickering. Two of the optical flickerers exhibited boundary-layer hard X-rays. We also identified 10 symbiotic candidates, and discovered likely optical flickering in the known symbiotic V1044 Cen (CD-36 8436). We conclude that at least 20 per cent of the true population of symbiotics exhibit detectable optical flickering from the inner accretion disc, the majority of which do not meet the H$\alpha$ detection thresholds used to find symbiotics in typical narrow-band surveys.

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Publication Details

Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2025-08-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1351
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.67

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article

A new way to find symbiotic stars: accretion disc detection with continuum survey photometry

N. E. Nuñez, K. Mukai, G. J. M. Luna, H. Breytenbach et al.
2 citations
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
2.67
article

A new way to find symbiotic stars: accretion disc detection with continuum survey photometry

N. E. Nuñez, K. Mukai, G. J. M. Luna, H. Breytenbach, R. Manick, C. Wolf, D. A. H. Buckley, Christopher A. Onken, Adrian B. Lucy, Stephen B Potter, Jennifer L. Sokoloski, D. A. Howell, B. S. Paul
article en
2 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Symbiotic stars are binaries in which a cool and evolved star of luminosity class I–III accretes onto a smaller companion. However, direct accretion signatures like disc flickering and boundary layer X-rays are typically outshone or suppressed by the luminous giant, shell burning on the accreting white dwarf, and the illuminated wind nebula. We present a new way to find symbiotics that is less biased against directly detectable accretion discs than methods based on narrow-band H$\alpha$ photometry or objective prism plate surveys. We identified outliers in SkyMapper survey photometry, using reconstructed uvg snapshot colours and rapid variability among the three exposures of each 20-min SkyMapper Main Survey filter sequence, from a sample of 366 721 luminous red objects. We found that SkyMapper catalogue colours of large-amplitude pulsating giants must be corrected for variability, and that flickering is detectable with only three data points. Our methods probed a different region of parameter space than a recent search for accreting-only symbiotics in the GALAH survey, while being surprisingly concordant with another survey’s infrared detection algorithm. We discovered 12 new symbiotics, including four with optical accretion disc flickering. Two of the optical flickerers exhibited boundary-layer hard X-rays. We also identified 10 symbiotic candidates, and discovered likely optical flickering in the known symbiotic V1044 Cen (CD-36 8436). We conclude that at least 20 per cent of the true population of symbiotics exhibit detectable optical flickering from the inner accretion disc, the majority of which do not meet the H$\alpha$ detection thresholds used to find symbiotics in typical narrow-band surveys.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 543(3)
Australian National University (AU), Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Space Telescope Science Institute (US), National Agrarian University (NI), United States Department of State (US), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR), University of California, Santa Barbara (US), University of Cape Town (ZA), University of Johannesburg (ZA), University of the Free State (ZA), National University of San Juan (AR), South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (ZA), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán (AR), Astrophysics Science Division (US), ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (AU), Deleted Institution, Columbia University (US), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (US), Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Australian National Data Service, National Computational Infrastructure, Astronomy Australia Limited, Space Telescope Science Institute, Australian Government, University of Leicester, Australian National University, Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology, Curtin University of Technology, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Australian Astronomical Optics-Macquarie, National Cancer Institute
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Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
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