Towards Ascertaining the Origins of Cataclysmic Variables Through Abundance Analyses

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This award will support a study the origins of compact binary stars in cataclysmic variable systems that may be the progenitors of some types of supernovae. Spectroscopy will be used to provide accurate masses and temperatures of the components of several binaries, and will be used to constrain the interior structure of the binary members. The main goals of this work will be to constrain the current evolutionary state of the secondary stars in these systems, to identify the properties of the progenitors, and to provide additional constraints on the processes associated with the evolution of interacting binaries, including constraints on the important, but poorly understood, common envelope phase.The origins of supernovae are still under considerable debate, and astronomers are attempting to understand which types of stars eventually end their lives explosively. Many details, particularly of the evolution of progenitor stars, remain poorly understood.