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Spectroscopic confirmation of AT 2020plo (M31 recurrent nova candidate) as a Galactic dwarf nova

ATel #13883; S. C. Williams (Turku), M. J. Darnley (LJMU), F. J. Murphy-Glaysher (LJMU)
on 21 Jul 2020; 11:24 UT
Credential Certification: Steven Williams (steven.williams@utu.fi)

Subjects: Optical, Cataclysmic Variable, Nova, Transient

We obtained a spectrum of the transient AT 2020plo (ZTF20ablyczu; ATel #13869) with the SPRAT spectrograph (resolution R ~ 350; Piascik et al. 2014) on the 2-m Liverpool Telescope (LT; Steele et al. 2004) on 2020 Jul 21.17 UT.

The spectrum shows a blue continuum, along with absorption from Hβ, Hγ and Hδ. The absorption-line minima are consistent with z=0. This spectrum indicates that AT 2020plo is not an M31 recurrent nova, but a foreground Galactic dwarf nova in outburst. We will aim to obtain an additional epoch of spectroscopy later in the outburst. The ZTF light curve (obtained via Lasair) indicates that the outburst peaked at g = 15.11 +/- 0.02. The lack of a clear source in deep PanSTARRS-1 imaging (Flewelling et al. 2016) implies a g-band outburst amplitude of ≳6.5 mag. The optical observations so far are consistent with a WZ Sge-type dwarf nova.