OmegaWhite is a wide-field, high cadence, synoptic survey targeting fields in the southern Galactic plane, with the aim of discovering short period variable stars. Our strategy is to take a series of 39 s exposures in the g band of a 1 square degree of sky lasting 2 h using the OmegaCAM wide field imager on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST). We give an overview of the initial 4 years of data which covers 134 square degrees and includes 12.3 million light curves. As the fields overlap with the VLT Survey Telescope Halpha Photometric Survey of the Galactic plane and Bulge (VPHAS+), we currently have $ugriHα$ photometry for ~1/3 of our fields. We find that a significant fraction of the light curves have been affected by the diffraction spikes of bright stars sweeping across stars within a few dozen of pixels over the two hour observing time interval due to the alt-az nature of the VST. We select candidate variable stars using a variety of variability statistics, followed by a manual verification stage. We present samples of several classes of short period variables, including: an ultra compact binary, a DQ white dwarf, a compact object with evidence of a 100 min rotation period, three CVs, one eclipsing binary with an 85 min period, a symbiotic binary which shows evidence of a 31 min photometric period, and a large sample of candidate delta Sct type stars including one with a 9.3 min period. Our overall goal is to cover 400 square degrees, and this study indicates we will find many more interesting short period variable stars as a result.
The OmegaWhite survey for short-period variable stars - V. Discovery of an ultracompact hot subdwarf binary with a compact companion in a 44 minute orbit
我们发现了轨道周期为P $_{\rm orb}=44.66279\pm1.16\times10^{-4}$ min的超紧凑热亚矮星（sdOB）双星OW J 074106.0 -294811.0，使其成为已知最紧凑的热亚矮星双星。使用甚大望远镜、双子座望远镜和凯克望远镜进行的光谱观测揭示了一个氦丰度为T $_{\rm eff}=39 400\pm500$ K和log（g）= $5.74\pm0.09$的氦-sdOB主星系。高信噪比光变曲线显示出强烈的椭圆调制，导致导出的sdOB质量$M_{\rm sdOB}=0.23\pm0.12$ M $_\odot$与WD伴体（$M_{\rm WD}=0.72\pm0.17$ M $_\odot$）。发现质量比为$q = M_{\rm sdOB}/M_{\rm WD}=0.32\pm0.10$。He-sdOB的导出质量与$\approx0.47$ M $_\odot$的热杂环的正则质量不一致。为了限制sdOB星的结构和演化历史，我们将导出的T $_{\rm eff}$，log（g）和sdOB质量与恒星天体物理学实验模块（MESA）计算的氦星和氦白矮星的演化轨道进行了比较。我们发现，最好的拟合模型是一个氦白矮星的质量为$0.320$ M $_\odot$，离开共同的信封${\approx}1.1$ Myr前，是与观测相一致的。作为一个氦白矮星与一个…
