2025A&A...703A.119T

Context. The overwhelming majority of cataclysmic variables (CVs) have orbital periods shorter than 10 h. However, a few have much longer orbital periods, and their formation and existence pose certain challenges for the CV evolution models. These extremely long-period CVs must host nuclearly evolved donor stars (i.e., subgiants), as the companion of the white dwarf would otherwise be too small to fill its Roche lobe. This makes the extremely long-period CVs natural laboratories for testing binary evolution models and accretion processes with subgiant donors, with applications extending beyond white dwarf binaries. Despite the importance of compact objects accreting from subgiant donors, the process by which they form and evolve remains unclear.
Aims. To shed light on the formation and evolution of accreting compact objects with subgiant companions, we investigated two extremely long-period CVs in detail, namely V479 And (P_orb ≃ 14 h) and V1082 Sgr (P_orb ≃ 21 h). We searched for reasonable formation pathways to explain their refined stellar and binary parameters.
Methods. We used a broad set of new observations, including ultraviolet and infrared spectroscopy, results of circular polarimetry, and improved Gaia DR3 distance estimates, to determine the fundamental parameters (e.g., effective temperatures, masses, and radii of the donor stars) that would be confronted with numerical simulations. Furthermore, we utilized the MESA code to conduct numerical simulations, employing state-of-the-art prescriptions, such as the Convection And Rotation Boosted (CARB) model for strong magnetic braking.
Results. The two systems have an unusual chemical composition and very low masses for their assigned spectral classes. This most likely indicates that they underwent thermal timescale mass transfer. We found models for the two extremely long-period CVs that can reasonably reproduce their properties. CV evolution needs to be convergent (i.e., toward shorter orbital periods), which is only possible if the magnetic braking is sufficiently strong.
Conclusions. We conclude that the donor stars in both V479 And and V1082 Sgr are filling their Roche lobes, ruling out previous models in which they are underfilling their Roche lobes. Our findings suggest that orbital angular momentum loss is stronger due to magnetic braking in CVs with subgiant donors compared to those with unevolved donors. In addition, our findings suggest that extremely long-period CVs could significantly contribute to the population of double white dwarf binaries in close orbits (orbital periods ≲1 d).