2017MNRAS.466..581P

We report a 20-yr campaign to track the 1.8 h photometric (and orbital) wave in the recurrent nova T Pyxidis. Before and after the 2011 eruption, the period increased on a time-scale P/{dot}P = 3 x 10⁵ yr. This suggests a mass transfer rate in quiescence of ∼10^–7 M_☉ yr^–1, in substantial agreement with the accretion rate based on the star's luminosity. During the eruption itself, a rapid period increase of 0.0054(7) per cent occurred. This is probably a measure of the mass ejected in the outburst. For a plausible choice of binary parameters, that mass is at least 3 x 10^–5 M_☉, and probably more. This represents >300 yr of accretion at the pre-outburst rate, but the time between outbursts was only 45 yr. Thus, the erupting white dwarf (WD) seems to have ejected at least six times more mass than it accreted. If this eruption is typical, the WD must be eroding, rather than growing, in mass. Unless the present series of eruptions is a short-lived episode, the binary dynamics will evaporate the secondary in ∼10⁵ yr. This could be a major channel by which short-period cataclysmic variables are removed from the population.