The Long-Period Radio Transient and Cataclysmic Variable ASKAP J1745-5051: Evidence for a 15,000 K White Dwarf and a Sub-Stellar Donor

Abstract

Long-period transients (LPTs) are radio sources that exhibit polarized periodic radio bursts on time-scales of minutes to hours. At least some LPTs are associated with white dwarfs (WDs) in close binary systems. However, the evolutionary connection between LPTs and accreting WDs (aka ``cataclysmic variables'' [CVs]) has been unclear. The recent discovery of ASKAP J1745-5051 has been a breakthrough: this system is a bona-fide LPT that is also an X-ray emitting magnetic CV (mCV) with P_orb ~ 1.3 hrs. Here, we construct the broad-band far-UV through near-IR SED for the system and show that it is well described by two components: a 15,000 K WD (which dominates the far-UV through optical bands) and a sub-stellar (M_2 ~ 0.05~M_sun, T_eff ~ 1800 K) donor star (which dominates in the K_s band). Our SED-fitting results differ from those in the discovery paper for four reasons: (i) we fix an issue with the treatment of reddening/extinction; (ii) we discard photometric measurements that are irreparably contaminated by an unrelated star located just 0.9" from the target; (iii) we add near-infrared brightness measurements obtained from PSF-fitting photometry on archival VISTA/VHS observations; (iv) we fit the data with synthetic spectra based on model atmospheres (rather than with blackbodies). The inferred WD temperature is reasonable for an accretion-heated primary in a short-period mCV. The sub-stellar nature of the donor suggests that the system is a "period bouncer" that has already evolved past the CV period minimum. The SED fit also yields a distance of d ~ 320 pc, only ~4x larger than that to the nearest confirmed mCV. Since the fraction of the sky swept out by the radio beam is likely to be small, systems like ASKAP J1745-5051 could make up a large percentage of mCVs. This may point towards a connection between LPTs and the ``missing'' population of period bouncers among CVs.