Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2026
Abstract
We present a systematic analysis of 2544 cataclysmic variable systems and related candidates observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), with the aim of compiling a comprehensive catalogue of orbital periods. Using 2-min photometric time-series data, we applied an automated algorithm to generate Lomb–Scargle periodograms and identify the most significant coherent periodic signals, which were subsequently verified through visual inspection. This process yielded a confident sample of 910 sources exhibiting at least one periodic signal, hereafter referred to as the Cataclysmic Variable Confident Catalogue (CCC). For each object, we report the most likely orbital period together with additional periodic features such as spin modulations and/or superhump signals when present. To assess consistency with previously published measurements, we cross-matched the CCC with the Ritter & Kolb catalogue, identifying 300 overlapping systems, of which 215 showed full agreement with the R&K orbital periods, while 39 displayed discrepancies for which the R&K values were revised based on our TESS measurements and supporting evidence from the literature. Overall, the CCC provides a means to validate known orbital periods, propose corrections where necessary, and offer new determinations for systems with previously unknown periods, thereby supporting a more complete and reliable characterization of the cataclysmic variable population.
Recommended Citation
Dağ, Meryem K., Simone Scaringi, Kieran O’Brien, Martina Veresvarska, Nikita Rawat, Yusuke Tampo, Santiago Hernández-Díaz et al. "A catalogue of orbital periods of cataclysmic variables and candidates from TESS observations." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 548, no. 1 (2026): stag514. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag514
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stag514
Comments
© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.