The confirmation and revision on the orbital period change of the possible type Ia supernova progenitor V617 Sagittarii

This work reports new photometric results of eclipsing cataclysmic variable V617 Sagittarii (V617 Sgr). We analyzed the orbital period change of V617 Sgr, by employing three new CCD eclipse timings since 2010 along with all the available data from the literature. It was found that the orbital period of V617 Sgr undergoes an obvious long-term increase, which confirms the result revealed by Steiner et al. (2006). The rate of orbital period increase was calculated to be ${\dot{P}}$ = +2.14(0.05) $\times$ 10$^{-7}$ day/year. This suggests the lifetime of the secondary star will attain to the end in a timescale of 0.97 $\times$ 10$^6$ years faster than that predicted previously. In particular, a cyclic variation with a period of 4.5 year and an amplitude of 2.3 minutes may present in the O-C diagram. Dominated by the wind-accretion mechanism, high mass transfer from the low mass secondary to the white dwarf is expected to sustain in the V Sge-type star V617 Sgr during its long-term evolution. The mass transfer rate $|\dot{M}_{tr}|$ was estimated to be in the range of about 2.2 $\times$ 10$^{-7}$ to 5.2 $\times$ 10$^{-7}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. Accordingly, the already massive ($\geq$ 1.2 M$_{\odot}$) white dwarf primary will process stable nuclear burning, accrete a fraction of mass from its companion to reach the standard Chandrasekhar mass limit ($\simeq$ 1.38 M$_{\odot}$), and ultimately produce a type Ia supernova (SN Ia) within about 4 $\sim$ 8 $\times$ 10$^{5}$ years or earlier.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Accepted by PASJ on 20 August 201

Large magneto-optical Kerr effect in noncollinear antiferromagnets Mn3X_{3}X (XX = Rh, Ir, or Pt)

Magneto-optical Kerr effect, normally found in magnetic materials with nonzero magnetization such as ferromagnets and ferrimagnets, has been known for more than a century. Here, using first-principles density functional theory, we demonstrate large magneto-optical Kerr effect in high temperature noncollinear antiferromagnets Mn$_{3}X$ ($X$ = Rh, Ir, or Pt), in contrast to usual wisdom. The calculated Kerr rotation angles are large, being comparable to that of transition metal magnets such as bcc Fe. The large Kerr rotation angles and ellipticities are found to originate from the lifting of the band double-degeneracy due to the absence of spatial symmetry in the Mn$_{3}X$ noncollinear antiferromagnets which together with the time-reversal symmetry would preserve the Kramers theorem. Our results indicate that Mn$_{3}X$ would provide a rare material platform for exploration of subtle magneto-optical phenomena in noncollinear magnetic materials without net magnetization