3D eclipse mapping in AM Herculis systems - `Genetically modified fireflies'

Abstract

In order to map the 3-dimensional location and shape of the emission originating within the accretion stream in AM Her systems, we have investigated the possibilities of relaxing the hitherto-applied constraint of a predetermined stream trajectory in modelling the eclipse profiles. We use emission points which can be located anywhere in the Roche lobe of the primary, together with a regularisation term which favours any curved stream structure, connected at the secondary and white dwarf primary. Our results show that, given suitable regularisation constraints, such inversion is feasible. We investigate the effect of removing the regularisation term, and also the sensitivity of the fit to input parameters such as inclination.