The XMM-Newton-MSSL survey of Polars

Abstract

The XMM-Newton-MSSL survey of polars is a snapshot survey of nearly 40 polars. We present the initial results, with an emphasis on the energy balance in these systems and the number of systems which were observed in a low accretion state. In contrast to the ROSAT results, we find that the vast majority of polars show no `soft X-ray excess'. We find that half of our sample were observed in low or off accretion states. We find no evidence that these systems were biased towards certain orbital periods.

To be published in Proc. Cape Town Workshop on Magnetic CVs, Dec 2002