How many cataclysmic variables are crossing the period gap? A test for the disruption of magnetic braking

We apply population synthesis techniques to calculate the present-day number of two types of white-dwarf main-sequence star (WDMS) binaries within the cataclysmic variable 2 to 3 h period gap. The first are post-common envelope binaries with secondary stars that have masses 0.17 ≤M2/M⊙≤ 0.36 gap-post common envelope binaries (gPCEBs), suc...更多