The spectrum and variability of radio emission from AE Aquarii

The first detections of the magnetic cataclysmic variable AE Aquarii at millimeter wavelengths are reported. AE Aqr was detected at wavelengths of 3.4 and 1.25 mm. These data are used to show that the time-averaged spectrum is generally well fitted by a power law S(nu) varies as nu exp alpha, where alpha is approximately equal to 0.35-0.60, and that the power law extends to millimeter wavelengths, i.e., the spectral turnover is at a frequency higher than 240 GHz. It is suggested that the spectrum is consistent with that expected from a superposition of flarelike events where the frequency distribution of the initial flux density is a power law f (S0) varies as S0 exp -epsilon, with index epsilon approximately equal to 1.8. Within the context of this model, the high turnover frequency of the radio spectrum implies magnetic field strengths in excess of 250 G in the source.