* Astronomy

Title: A possible giant planet orbiting the cataclysmic variable LX Ser
Author: K. Li, S.-M. Hu, J.-L.Zhou, D.-H. Wu, D.-F. Guo, Y.-G. Jiang, D.-Y. Gao, X. Chen, X.-Y. Wang

LX Ser is a deeply eclipsing cataclysmic variable with an orbital period of 0.1584325d. Sixty two new eclipse times were determined by our observations and the AAVSO International Data base. Combining all available eclipse times, we analysed the O-C behaviour of LX Ser. We found that the O-C diagram of LX Ser shows a sinusoidal oscillation with a period of 22.8 yr and an amplitude of 0.00035 days. Two mechanisms (i.e., the Applegate mechanism and the light travel time effect) are applied to explain the cyclic modulation. We found that the Applegate mechanism is difficult to explain the cyclic oscillation in the orbital period. Therefore, the cyclic period change is most likely to be caused by the light travel time effect due to the presence of a third body. The mass of the tertiary component was determined to be M_3~7.5MJup. We supposed that the tertiary companion is plausible a giant planet. The stability of the giant planet was checked, and we found that the multiple system is stable.

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