Periodic Phenomena in Cataclysmic Binaries

约瑟夫·帕特森博士将领导一个由专业人士和业余爱好者组成的全球合作项目，对变星进行持续的观测。这些天体由一颗白矮星和一颗通过吸积盘将质量转移到白矮星上的近距离伴星组成。这些天体可以表现出巨大的、不规则的和快速的亮度变化（因此被称为“灾难性的”）。根据伴星的类型及其与白矮星的距离，该系统在发射光的数量和光谱上可能会有复杂的变化，从中可以了解到吸积盘的性质和质量传递率。在过去的十年里，帕特森博士组建了一个小型光度望远镜的全球网络，称为后院天体物理学中心。通过这个网络，天文学家能够以前所未有的细节研究周期性现象。这个主要由业余天文学家组成的网络现在是业余天文学家和专业天文学家研究界面的主要组成部分。在这个项目中，新的努力将扩大观测范围，使其超出灾难性变量的范围。这个计划代表了业余爱好者对发现的传统兴趣与物理学家对实验的传统兴趣的共生关系，从而导致与理论的对抗。随着专业天文台的小型望远镜的广泛关闭，这种类型的合作对于持续研究灾难性变量中的周期性和非周期性现象是必要的。

Dr. Joseph Patterson will lead a world-wide collaboration of professionals and amateurs to obtain continuing observations of cataclysmic variable stars. These objects consist of a white dwarf star with a close companion which is transferring mass onto the white dwarf via an accretion disk. These objects can exhibit large, irregular, and rapid changes in brightness (hence the term "cataclysmic"). Depending on the type of the companion and its proximity to the white dwarf, the system can have complicated changes in the amount of and spectrum of the emitted light, from which much can be learned about the nature of the accretion disk and the rate of mass transfer.Over the last ten years, Dr. Patterson has assembled a worldwide network of small photometric telescopes, called the Center for Backyard Astrophysics. Through this network, astronomers are able to study periodic phenomena in unprecedented detail. This network of (mostly) amateur astronomers is now a major element in the research interface of amateur and professional astronomers. During this project, new efforts will expand the observations beyond the realm of cataclysmic variables. This program represents a symbiosis of the amateur's traditional interest in discovery with the physicist's traditional interest in experiments leading to confrontation with theory. With the widespread closing of small telescopes at professional observatories, this type of collaboration is necessary for the continuing study of periodic and aperiodic phenomena in cataclysmic variables.