Detection of orbital and superhump periods in Nova V2574 Ophiuchi (2004)

Abstract

We present the results of 37 nights of CCD unfiltered photometry of nova V2574 Oph (2004) from 2004 and 2005. We find two periods of 0.14164 d (~3.40 h) and 0.14773 d (~3.55 h) in the 2005 data. The 2004 data show variability on a similar timescale, but no coherent periodicity was found. We suggest that the longer periodicity is the orbital period of the underlying binary system and that the shorter period represents a negative superhump. The 3.40 h period is about 4% shorter than the orbital period and obeys the relation between superhump period deficit and binary period. The detection of superhumps in the light curve is evidence of the presence of a precessing accretion disk in this binary system shortly after the nova outburst. From the maximum magnitude - rate of decline relation, we estimate the decay rate t_2 = 17+/-4 d and a maximum absolute visual magnitude of M_Vmax = -7.7+/-1.7 mag.