Short period sdB binaries with cool companions are crucial to understand
pre-CV evolution, because they will evolve into cataclysmic variables, when the
sdB will have left the extended horizontal branch. Recently we discovered the
sixth such system, HS 2333+3927, consisting of an sdB star and an M dwarf
(period: 0.172 d) with a very strong reflection effect, but no eclipses. The
reflection is stronger than in any of the other similar systems which renders a
quantitative spectral analysis very difficult because the Balmer line profiles
may be disturbed by the reflected light. A spectroscopic analysis results in
Teff = 36500 K, log g = 5.70, and log (n_He/n_H) = -2.15. Mass-radius relations
were derived from the results of the analysis of light and radial-velocity
curves. Comparison with the mass-radius relation derived from the surface
gravity of the sdB star favours a rather low mass of 0.38 Msun for the primary.
The mass of the companion is 0.29 M_sun. HS 2333+3927 is the only known sdB+dM
system with a period above the CV period gap.Comment: 6 pages, 3 Fig., to appear in 14th European Workshop on White Dwarfs,
ASP Conference Series, eds. D. Koester, S. Moehle