Close binaries in hierarchical stellar systems

Tokovinin, Andreï

doi:10.31577/caosp.2020.50.2.448

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

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“…These oscillations can result in the transfer of angular momentum from the inner binary to the third body, leading to changes in the orbital period of the inner binary system. Tokovinin et al (2006) have shown the detailed role of the third bodies in that most spectroscopic binaries with P < 3 days have a tertiary companion (see also Tokovinin 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five Massive Contact Binaries with Twin Components in LMC

Li,

Qian,

et al. 2023

ApJ

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Massive contact binaries refer to the close binary systems in which the components have filled their respective Roche lobes and share a common envelope with early-type spectra. Twin binaries are a special type of binary system characterized by two components with nearly equal masses. The Magellanic Cloud, comprising the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud, is a fascinating galaxy that is distinct from the Milky Way. With its low metallicity, it serves as an ideal test bed for studying the formation and evolution of massive binaries and testing theoretical models. In this work, based on long-term observations with Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment and MAssive Compact Halo Object in the LMC, we identified and performed comprehensive analyses of five massive twin contact binaries via the method of the light travel time effect and Wilson–Devinney code. The results show that all of these twin binaries are accompanied by low-mass third bodies. The third bodies have minimum masses ranging from 0.33 to 1.46 M ⊙. Their orbital periods range from 4.34 to 12.03 yr. The maximum distances between the third bodies and the central binary systems range from 6.7 to 11.4 au. Remarkably, four out of the five massive twins have evolved into deep-contact binaries, which indicates that all of them may have originated from Case A mass transfer. These results strongly suggest the significant influence of the third body in the formation and evolution of massive contact binaries and may hold the key to unraveling the origins of massive binaries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five Massive Contact Binaries with Twin Components in LMC

Li,

Qian,

et al. 2023

ApJ

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A 2+1 + 1 quadruple star system containing the most eccentric, low-mass, short-period, eclipsing binary known

Han

Rappaport

Vanderburg

et al. 2021

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We present an analysis of a newly discovered 2+1+1 quadruple system with TESS containing an unresolved eclipsing binary (EB) as part of TIC 121088960 and a close neighbor TIC 121088959. The EB consists of two very low-mass M dwarfs in a highly-eccentric (e = 0.709) short-period (P = 3.04358 d) orbit. Given the large pixel size of TESS and the small separation (3${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$9) between TIC 121088959 and TIC 121088960 we used light centroid analysis of the difference image between in-eclipse and out-of-eclipse data to show that the EB likely resides in TIC 121088960, but contributes only ∼10% of its light. Radial velocity data were acquired with iSHELL at NASA’s Infrared Facility and the Coudé spectrograph at the McDonald 2.7-m telescope. For both images, the measured RVs showed no variation over the 11-day observational baseline, and the RV difference between the two images was 8 ± 0.3 km s−1. The similar distances and proper motions of the two images indicate that TIC 121088959 and TIC 121088960 are a gravitationally bound pair. Gaia’s large RUWE and astrometric_excess_noise parameters for TIC 121088960, further indicate that this image is the likely host of the unresolved EB and is itself a triple star. We carried out an SED analysis and calculated stellar masses for the four stars, all of which are in the M dwarf regime: 0.19 M⊙ and 0.14 M⊙ for the EB stars and 0.43 M⊙ and 0.39 M⊙ for the brighter visible stars, respectively. Lastly, numerical simulations show that the orbital period of the inner triple is likely the range 1 to 50 years.

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Eclipse Timing the Milky Way’s Gravitational Potential

Chakrabarti

Stevens

Wright

et al. 2022

ApJL

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We show that a small but measurable shift in the eclipse midpoint time of eclipsing binary (EBs) stars of ∼0.1 s over a decade baseline can be used to directly measure the Galactic acceleration of stars in the Milky Way at ∼kiloparsec distances from the Sun. We consider contributions to the period drift rate from dynamical mechanisms other than the Galaxy’s gravitational field and show that the Galactic acceleration can be reliably measured using a sample of Kepler EBs with orbital and stellar parameters from the literature. The contribution from tidal decay we estimate here is an upper limit assuming the stars are not tidally synchronized. We find there are about 200 detached EBs that have estimated timing precision better than 0.5 s, and for which other dynamical effects are subdominant to the Galactic signal. We illustrate the method with a prototypical, precisely timed EB using an archival Kepler light curve and a modern synthetic HST light curve (which provides a decade baseline). This novel method establishes a realistic possibility to constrain dark matter substructure and the Galactic potential using eclipse timing to measure Galactic accelerations, along with other emerging new methods, including pulsar timing and extreme-precision radial velocity observations. This acceleration signal grows quadratically with time. Therefore, given baselines established in the near future for distant EBs, we can expect to measure the period drift in the future with space missions like JWST and the Roman Space Telescope.

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Close binaries in hierarchical stellar systems

Cited by 3 publications

References 20 publications

Five Massive Contact Binaries with Twin Components in LMC

Five Massive Contact Binaries with Twin Components in LMC

A 2+1 + 1 quadruple star system containing the most eccentric, low-mass, short-period, eclipsing binary known

Eclipse Timing the Milky Way’s Gravitational Potential

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