2012MNRAS.421.2310A

We report photometric periodicities in the AM CVn system CP Eridani (CP Eri) of 1716.2±0.2 and 1701.4±0.2 s, obtained while the system was in quiescence. From a second observation obtained during superoutburst, we interpret the 1716-s signal as a superhump period (P_sh) and the 1701-s signal as the orbital period (P_orb) of the binary. The derived fractional superhump period excess ε adds CP Eri to a small collection of AM CVn stars with ε measured via time-series photometry of superhump and orbital periods. Plotting ε(P_orb) for these systems, we find that AM CVn systems may, as expected, be evolving towards longer P_orb. We discuss a technique of using ε to determine the degree of degeneracy of the donor star in a contact binary, and we show that for the AM CVn systems, the donor stars are well described by mass–radius relations of partially-degenerate objects.