The Palomar Transient Factory is a project making use of a Schmidt 48 inch telescope located on the Palomar Mountain, which is surveying the sky with dynamical cadences. It was deployed in 2009 and the observed sky region is over 1200 square degrees. We have studied the long-term periodic variabilities of the known galactic cataclysmic variables (CVs). More than 20 of the sources had been found to have long term periodic signals, ranging from several tens of days to several hundreds of days. Some possible scenarios are proposed to explain the results, such as a magnetic field change of the companion star, precession of the accretion disk, triple systems and superoutburst cycles. Some preliminary discussion will be presented in this article.

On the framework of stochastic gravitational wave background(SGWB) by compact binary systems, we studied the strain spectra of SGWB produced by cosmological cataclysmic variables(CV). For this we reviewed the empirical properties of CVs by using newly published CV catalogue and calculated the cosmological densities of CVs considering the galaxy luminosity function and cosmic stellar birth rate function. Assuming the secular evolution of CVs, we calculated the time scale of CV gravitational wave(GW) radiation and derived formulae for the strain spectra of SGWB by cosmological CVs.

A magnetic cataclysmic variable has a rotating magnetic white dwarf which accretes matter from its late type companion. Kim & Beuermann (1995) presented a phenomenological model of the accretion from its surrounding structure e.g., a disk into the magnetosphere of the white dwarf, and presented results for the spin modulated X-ray spectrum and light curves. Using this model, we calculate the optical continuum and line emission which result from reprocessing of X-rays in the accretion stream within the magnetosphere. Penning (1985) suggested the observed spin-modulated radial-velocity variations might result from reprocession of X-rays in the disk. We, however, find the radiation can be originated from the magnetosphere accretion stream. We use the same geometrical model to calculate the optical and the X-ray behaviour. The results from the two wavelength bands are internally consistent. We conclude that this approach will increase the diagnostic accuracies of the results.

Cores of globular clusters are an ideal place for close encounters between stars. The outcome of tidal capture can be stellar mergers, close binaries between normal stars (W UMa type), cataclysmic variables composed of white dwarf and normal star pairs, or low-mass X-ray binaries consisting of a neutron star and a normal star pairs. Stellar mergers can be the origin of blue stragglers in dense globular clusters although they are hard to observe. Low mass X-ray binaries would eventually become binary pulsars with short pulse periods after the neutron stars accrete sufficient amount of matter from the companion. However, large number of recently discovered, isolated millisecond pulsars (as opposed to binary pulsars) in globular clusters may imply that they do not have to gain angular speeds during the X-ray binary phase. We propose that these isolated millisecond pulsars may have formed through the disruptive encounters, which lead to the formation of accretion disk without Roche lobe filling companion, between a neutron star and a main-sequence star. Based on recently developed multicomponent models for the dynamical evolution of globular clusters, we compute the expected numbers of various systems formed by tidal capture as a function of time.

Although the identification of the progenitors of type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) remains controversial, it is generally accepted that they originate from binary star systems in which at least one component is a carbon-oxygen white dwarf (WD); those systems are grouped under the wide umbrella of cataclysmic variables. Current theories for SNeIa progenitors hold that, either via Roche lobe overflow of the companion or via a wind, the WD accumulates hydrogen or helium rich material which is then burned to C and O onto the WD’s surface. However, the specifics of this scenario are far from being understood or defined, allowing for a wealth of theories fighting for attention and a dearth of observations to support them. I discuss the latest attempts to identify and study those controversial SNeIa progenitors. I also introduce the most promising progenitor in hand and I present observational diagnostics that can reveal more members of the category.

A summary is presented of what is currently known about the surface temperatures of accreting white dwarfs (WDs) detected in non-magnetic and magnetic cataclysmic variables (CVs) based upon synthetic spectral analyses of far ultraviolet data. A special focus is placed on WD temperatures above and below the CV period gap as a function of the orbital period, Porb. The principal uncertainty of the temperatures for the CV WDs in the Teff - Porb distribution, besides the distance to the CV, is the mass of the WD. Only in eclipsing CV systems, an area of eclipsing binary studies, which was so central to Robert H. Koch’s career, is it possible to know CV WD masses with high precision.