Determining the mass of the accreting white dwarf in magnetic CVs using data

We have extracted spectra of 20 magnetic Cataclysmic Variables (mCVs) from the RXTE archive and fitted them using the X-ray continuum method of Cropper et al to determine the mass of the accreting white dwarf in each system. We find evidence that the mass distribution of these mCVs is significantly different to that of non-magnetic isolated white dwarfs, with the white dwarfs in mCVs being biased towards higher masses. It is unclear if this effect is due to a selection effect or whether this reflects an real difference in the parent populations.