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Characteristics of Classical and Recurrent Novae obtained by combining models and observations


  Yael Hillman  ,  Michael Shara [1,2]  ,  Dina Prialnik [3]  ,  Yael Hillman [1,4]  ,  Attay Kovetz [3]  
 [1] The American Museum of Natural History, NY
[2] University of Cambridge, UK
[3] Tel Aviv University
[4] The Weizmann Institute of Science

Using our extensive simulations of nova eruptions we have determined fit formulae for the masses of the white dwarf nova progenitors and for the accretion rates in terms of observed characteristics, for recurrent and classical novae. We have combined these with databases of outburst characteristics of Galactic classical and recurrent novae to derive distributions of masses and accretion rates for novae, eliminating observational bias.