SW Sextantis variable

It is more difficult to find SW Sextantis systems with low inclination, since it is necessary to examine many stellar spectra without being able to restrict to eclipsing variables; however, surveys have been performed, and suggest that some of the observed properties of SW Sextantis stars are accidental results of a sample restricted to high inclination systems [1] Emission lines of hydrogen (the Balmer series) and helium are observed, and are not doubled (as one would expect by Doppler shift of light emitted from the edges of a fast-rotating disc), but the wings are broadened to the point that the spread of source velocities can be as much as 4000 km/s.

For a brief period near phase 0.5 of their orbits, SW Sextantis stars do show doubling of their emission lines and this is a defining character of the class.

Models of SW Sextantis stars must explain the high mass transfer rate and the period distribution just above the period-gap.

The standard theory of cataclysmic variables suggests that the rate of mass transfer is determined by loss of angular momentum due to magnetic fields.

[7] Donald W. Hoard at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg maintains a list [8] of SW Sextantis stars mentioned in the literature, and a description [9] of the characteristics used to identify them.