A precise HST parallax of the cataclysmic variable EX Hydrae, its system parameters, and accretion rate

Using the HST Fine Guidance Sensor, we have measured a high precision astrometric parallax of the cataclysmic variable EX Hydrae, pi = 15.50 +/- 0.29 mas. From the wavelength-integrated accretion-induced energy flux, we derive a quiescent accretion luminosity for EX Hya of L-acc = (2.6 +/- 0.6) x 10(32) erg s(-1). The quiescent accretion rate then is. (M) over dot(av) = (6.2 +/- 1.5) x 10(-11)(M-1/0.5 M.)(-1.61) M. yr(-1). The time-averaged accretion rate, which includes a small correction for the rare outbursts, is 6% higher. We discuss the system parameters of EX Hya and deduce M-1 = 0.4-0.7 M., M-2 = 0.07-0.10 M., and i = 76.0degrees - 77.6degrees, using recent radial velocity measurements of both components and restrictions imposed by other observational and theoretical constraints. We conclude that the secondary is undermassive, overluminous, and expanded over a ZAMS star of the same mass. Near the upper limit to M-1, the accretion rate of the white dwarf coincides with that due to near-equilibrium angular momentum loss by gravitational radiation and angular momentum transfer from the orbit into the spin-up of the white dwarf. Near the lower mass limit, the correspondingly higher accretion rate requires that either an additional angular momentum loss process is acting besides gravitational radiation or that accretion occurs on a near-adiabatic time scale. The latter possibility would imply that EX Hya is in a transient phase of high mass transfer and the associated spin-up of the white dwarf.