Modelling the Recurrent Nova CI Aql in Quiescence

We present detailed photometric investigations of the recurrent nova CI Aql. New data obtained after the 2000 outburst are used to derive a 3D geometrical model of the system. The resulting light curves clearly indicate the existence of an asymmetric spray around the accretion disk, as claimed in the past e.g. for the super-soft X-ray source CAL87 in the LMC. The simulated light curves give us the mass transfer rates varying from \dot M ~ 2.5 x 10^{-8} M_\odot / yr in 1991-1996 to 5.5 x 10^{-8} < \dot M < 1.5 x 10^{-7}M_\odot / yr in 2001/2002. The distance and the interstellar foreground extinction resulting from the model are 1.55 kpc and E(B-V) = 0.98 respectively. During fast photometry sequences in 2002 short timescale variations (t ~ 13 minutes) of the mass loss are found. Moreover a change in the orbital period of the system is detectable and results in a mass loss of 2.2 x 10^{-6} < \Delta M < 5.7 x 10^{-6} M_\odot during the nova explosion.Comment: 9 pages 14 eps figures, to appear in Astron. & Astrophy