The Fast Evolving, Tremendous Blue Superoutburst in ASASSN-21au Reveals a Dichotomy in the Outbursts of Long-period AM CVns
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract ASASSN-21au is an ultracompact accreting white dwarf binary (AM CVn type) with a period of ∼58 minutes. Using multiwavelength observations of the system, we discovered a dichotomy in the behavior of outbursts in AM CVns. The binary showed an initial increase in brightness that lasted for at least 82 days, followed by an additional increase that lasted two weeks. Afterward, ASASSN-21au went into superoutburst with a total duration of 19 days, showing an amplitude with respect to quiescence of ∼7.5 mag in g, with a precursor and an echo outburst. A correlation between X-rays, UV, and optical was identified for the first time in an AM CVn during this stage. The color evolution of ASASSN-21au indicates that during the superoutburst the dominant component was the accretion disk. The short duration, large amplitude, and color evolution of the superoutburst agree with expectations from the disk instability model. These characteristics are opposite to those observed in SDSS J080710+485259 and SDSS J113732+405458, which have periods of ∼53 minutes and ∼60 minutes, respectively. The initially slow increase in brightness in the light curve of ASASSN-21au and the behavior after the superoutburst favor a scenario in which changes in the mass-transfer rate led to disk instabilities, while the outburst mechanism of SDSS J080710+485259 and SDSS J113732+405458 has been attributed to enhanced mass transfer alone. Further observations are needed to understand the origin of this dichotomy.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".