A Catalogue of Orbital Periods of Cataclysmic Variables and Candidates from TESS Observations

Abstract

We present a systematic analysis of 2544 cataclysmic variable systems and related candidates observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), with the aim of compiling a comprehensive catalogue of orbital periods. Using 2-minute photometric time-series data, we applied an automated algorithm to generate Lomb-Scargle periodograms and identify the most significant coherent periodic signals, which were subsequently verified through visual inspection. This process yielded a confident sample of 910 sources exhibiting at least one periodic signal, hereafter referred to as the Cataclysmic Variable Confident Catalogue (CCC). For each object, we report the most likely orbital period together with additional periodic features such as spin modulations and/or superhump signals when present. To assess consistency with previously published measurements, we cross-matched the CCC with the Ritter \& Kolb catalogue, identifying 300 overlapping systems, of which 215 showed full agreement with the R\&K orbital periods, while 39 displayed discrepancies for which the R\&K values were revised based on our TESS measurements and supporting evidence from the literature. Overall, the CCC provides a means to validate known orbital periods, propose corrections where necessary, and offer new determinations for systems with previously unknown periods, thereby supporting a more complete and reliable characterisation of the cataclysmic variable population.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: TESS Sector 43 light curve (upper panel) and Lomb–Scargle periodogram (lower panel) of the cataclysmic variable V* QZ Aur (TIC ID 3034524). The threshold, defined as $\mu + k\sigma$ with $k = 10$, is shown in grey. All peaks above this threshold are marked in red, while visually confirmed signals are highlighted in dark green. The inset provides a zoomed-in view frequency near 14 cycles day$^{-1}$ to better illustrate the peak structure and detection method.
• Figure 2: The histogram shows the distribution of recovered peak frequencies obtained from 10000 bootstrap realisations. The solid vertical line marks the bootstrap mean frequency ($\mu = 1.73797~\mathrm{c/d}$), while the dashed vertical lines indicate the $\pm1\sigma$ uncertainty ($\sigma = 0.00037~\mathrm{c/d}$). The y-axis represents the number of realisations.
• Figure 3: Distribution of the analysed sources based on the number of observed sectors and the number of detected frequencies.All sources with green-labeled numbers have been included in the CV Confident Catalog.
• Figure 4: Top panel shows the TESS light curve of ZTF19abagxei (TIC ID 122519668) observed in Sector 75. Bottom panel presents the corresponding Lomb–Scargle periodogram, where the peaks at 10.94 and $\sim$13 cycles d$^{-1}$ (marked in red) are likely spurious due to the low power level and the lack of harmonic structure.
• Figure 5: Light curves and periodograms of V2491 Cyg (TIC ID 1868684285) from Sector 81 (top panels) and Sector 74 (bottom panels). In Sector 81, the algorithm identified a peak at approximately 1.35 cycles day$^{-1}$ and classified it as significant (marked in red). However, visual inspection does not support the reality of this signal. No corresponding peak is present at this frequency in Sector 74, and both sectors exhibit low power levels without clear harmonic structure, indicating that the detection is likely spurious rather than a genuine periodic feature.