A Systematic Search for Flickering in Southern Symbiotic Stars (Rodolfo Angeloni, DAA-PUC)

I will report on some preliminary results from the first systematic observational campaign aimed at studying rapid photometric variability (i.e., flickering) in southern symbiotic stars. In order to highlight the differences between symbiotics and other white-dwarf accretors, as well as to search for magnetic white dwarfs in symbiotic systems, we have started to observe a selected sample of southern symbiotic novae via differential optical photometry. In a few systems, we have already found multiperiodic variability with an amplitude larger than 0.4 mag on time scales shorter than one hour, based on observations made with the Swope Telescope, Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.