Chandra observations of the recurrent nova CI Aquilae after its 2000 April outburst

We report the results of two Chandra observations of the recurrent nova CI Aql at 14 and 16 months after its outburst in 2000 April. The X-ray emission is faint in both cases, without any noticeable change in spectrum or intensity. Although the emission is very soft, it is not luminous enough to be due to late-time H burning. This implies that the luminous supersoft phase ended even before the time predicted by the most recent calculations. The details of the X-ray spectrum, together with the fact that the observed X-ray intensity is brighter than preoutburst (1992/1993), suggest that the observed X-ray emission is either due to ionization of the circumstellar material or due to the shocks within the wind and/or with the surrounding medium.