The C/N ratio from FUV spectroscopy as a constraint upon the past evolution of HS0218+3229

Abstract

Some white dwarfs accreting from non-degenerate companions show anomalous carbon and nitrogen abundances in the photospheres of their stellar components which have been postulated to be descendants of supersoft X-ray binaries. Therefore the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio can provide constraints upon their past evolution. We fit far ultraviolet spectroscopy of the cataclysmic variable HS0218+3229 taken with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph using Markov Chain Monte Carlo. While some parameters depend upon the amount of reddening, the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is about one tenth of the Solar value (log C/N = −0.53^(+0.13)_(−0.14) and −0.58^(+0.16)_(−0.15) for almost no reddening and E(B-V) = 0.065, respectively, which are consistent within the uncertainties). We also provide estimates of the silicon and aluminum abundances, and upper limits for iron and oxygen. Using the measured parameters of HS0218+3229 we reconstruct its past using evolutionary simulations with MESA. We implemented Gaussian process fits to the MESA grid in order to determiner the most likely initial binary configuration of HS0218+3229. We found that an initial mass of the donor of M_(donor;i) = 0.90−0.98, M_⊙ and an initial orbital period of P_(orb;i) = 2.88 days (P_(orb;i) = 3.12−3.16 days) for an assumed white dwarf mass of M_(WD) = 0.83 M_⊙ (M_(WD) = 0.60 M_⊙) are needed to replicate the measured parameters. These configurations imply that the system did not go through a phase of quasi-steady hydrogen-burning on the white dwarf's surface. However, it could have experienced a phase of thermal timescale mass transfer in the past if the initial mass ratio was ≥1.5. We predict that HS0218+3229 will evolve into a CV with a period below the ≃80\,min period minimum for normal CVs, displaying helium and hydrogen in its spectrum.