IK Peg - a nearby, short-period, Sirius-like system

Abstract

The system IK Peg has been known to be a binary for over 60 years but the secondary has never been identified. The detection of this system in the British Wide Field Camera All-Sky Survey in the EUV has enabled the secondary to be positively identified as a white dwarf. Fits to EUV survey data, the first IUE spectrum, and archival X-ray data indicate that the system contains a high-mass(~1 M⊙) white dwarf and that it is very close to edge-on. The evolutionary status of this system is discussed; it is shown to be the result of a common-envelope phase, and it is expected to evolve into a Type I supernova or a cataclysmic variable.