Optical Spectroscopy of the Most Compact Accreting Binary Harboring a Magnetic White Dwarf and a Hydrogen-rich Donor

Abstract

Accreting white dwarfs (WDs) in close binary systems, commonly known as cataclysmic variables (CVs), with orbital periods below the canonical period minimum (≈80 minutes) are rare. Such short periods can only be reached if the donor star in the CV is either significantly evolved before initiating mass transfer to the WD or is metal-poor. We present optical photometry and spectroscopy of Gaia19bxc, a high-amplitude variable identified as a polar CV with an exceptionally short orbital period of 64.42 minutes—well below the canonical CV period minimum. High-speed photometry confirms persistent double-peaked variability consistent with cyclotron beaming, thus indicating the presence of a magnetic WD. Phase-resolved Keck/Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) spectroscopy reveals strong hydrogen and helium emission lines but no donor features, indicating the accretor is a magnetic WD and the donor is hydrogen-rich, but cold and faint. The absence of a detectable donor and the low inferred temperature (≲3500 K) disfavor an evolved donor scenario. Instead, the short period and the system’s halo-like kinematics suggest Gaia19bxc may be the first known metal-poor polar. Because metal-poor donors are more compact than solar-metallicity donors of the same mass, they can reach shorter minimum periods. Gaia19bxc is one of only a handful of known metal-poor CVs below the canonical period minimum and has the shortest period of any such magnetic system discovered to date.