A dwarf nova in the globular cluster M13
  Dwarf novae in globular clusters seem to be rare with only 13 detections in
the 157 known Galactic globular clusters. We report the identification of a new
dwarf nova in M13, the 14th dwarf nova identified in a globular cluster to
date. Using the 2m Faulkes Telescope North, we conducted a search for stars in
M13 that show variability over a year (2005-2006) on timescales of days and
months. This led to the detection of one dwarf nova showing several outbursts.
A Chandra X-ray source is coincident with this dwarf nova and shows both a
spectrum and variability consistent with that expected from a dwarf nova, thus
supporting the identification. We searched for a counterpart in Hubble Space
Telescope ACS/WFC archived images and found at least 11 candidates, of which we
could characterize only the 7 brightest, including one with a 3 sigma H-alpha
excess and a faint blue star. The detection of one dwarf nova when more could
have been expected likely indicates that our knowledge of the global Galactic
population of cataclysmic variables is too limited. The proportion of dwarf
novae may be lower than found in catalogs, or they may have a much smaller duty
cycle in general as proposed by some population synthesis models and recent
observations in the field.
