The problem of the high mass of the hot component in the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis solved after 38 years

Abstract

In this paper, we present long-term spectroscopic observations of the recurrent nova (RN) T CrB obtained between the years 1985 and 1996 using 1.02 m and 2.34 m telescopes of the Vainu Bappu Observatory in India and the long-term photoelectric photometry of the object obtained mainly at the Skalnate Pleso Observatory and at the Hlohovec Observatory in Slovakia. On the basis of our results, we have returned to the re-analysis of the old radial-velocity measurements published by Kraft (1958). The results obtained solve unambiguously the problem of the apparently too high mass of the hot component of T CrB, unacceptable if it has to be a white dwarf (WD), as several independent lines of evidence suggest.