In this paper, we present the first light curve synthesis and orbital period change analysis of nine contact binaries around the short period limit. It is found that all these systems are W-subtype contact binaries. One of them is a medium contact system while the others are shallow contact ones. Four of them manifest obvious O'Connell effect explained by a dark spot or hot spot on one of the component stars. Third light was detected in three systems. By investigating orbital period variations, we found that four of the targets display a secular period decrease while the others exhibit a long-term period increase. The secular period decrease is more likely caused by angular momentum loss while the long-term period increase is due to mass transfer from the less massive component to the more massive one. Based on the statistic of 19 ultrashort period contact binaries with known orbital period changes, we found that seven of them display long-term decrease (three of them also exhibit cyclic variations), ten of them manifest long-term increase while two of them only show cyclic variation and that most of them are shallow contact binaries supporting the long timescale angular momentum loss theory suggested by Stepien. For the three deep contact systems, we found that they are probably triple systems. The tertiary companion plays an essential role during their formation and evolution.
Nine new short period variable stars have been discovered in the direction of the open cluster Cr464 in Camelopardalis. The field was observed using Tzec Maun Observatory's telescope AP180. Two new variable stars were classified as pulsating stars (RRab and RRc types). The other seven stars are binary systems. One of them is of ELL-type, four binaries were recognized as EW-type, and two systems are rather short period EA-type binaries. All new variables were registered in the VSX catalogue.
The period distribution of contact binaries exhibits a very sharp short period cut-off at 0.22 days. In order to provide valuable information on this short period limit, we observed ten totally eclipsing contact binaries with orbital periods near this cut-off. By detailed analysis using W-D code, we determined that two of these systems are A-subtype contact binaries while the others are W-subtype contact binaries and all the targets show shallow contact configurations. Half of the targets exhibit stellar spot activity and four of them have third light. A statistical work on well studied USPCBs…
Ultra-short orbital period contact binaries (Porb < 0.26 d) host some of the smallest and least massive stars. These systems are faint and rare, and it is believed that they have reached a contact configuration after several Gyrs of evolution via angular momentum loss, mass transfer and mass loss through stellar wind processes. This study is conducted in the frame of Contact Binaries Towards Merging (CoBiToM) Project and presents the results from light curve and orbital analysis of 30 ultra-short orbital period contact binaries, with the aim to investigate the possibility of them being red nov…
Context. The CARMENES spectrograph is surveying ~300 M dwarf stars in search for exoplanets. Among the target stars, spectroscopic binary systems have been discovered, which can be used to measure fundamental properties of stars. Aims. Using spectroscopic observations, we determine the orbital and physical properties of nine new double-line spectroscopic binary systems by analysing their radial velocity curves. Methods. We use two-dimensional cross-correlation techniques to derive the radial velocities of the targets, which are then employed to determine the orbital properties. Photometric dat…
We report on the discovery of four ultra-short period (P<0.18 days) eclipsing M-dwarf binaries in the WFCAM Transit Survey. Their orbital periods are significantly shorter than of any other known main-sequence binary system, and are all significantly below the sharp period cut-off at P~0.22 days as seen in binaries of earlier type stars. The shortest-period binary consists of two M4 type stars in a P=0.112 day orbit. The binaries are discovered as part of an extensive search for short-period eclipsing systems in over 260,000 stellar lightcurves, including over 10,000 M-dwarfs down to J=18 mag,…
The formation of massive stars remains poorly understood and little is known about their birth multiplicity properties. Here, we investigate the strikingly low radial-velocity dispersion measured for a sample of 11 massive pre- and near-main-sequence stars (sigma_rv = 5.6 +/- 0.2 km/s) in the young massive star forming region M17 to obtain first constraints on the multiplicity properties of young massive stellar objects. Methods: We compute the RV dispersion of synthetic populations of massive stars for various multiplicity properties and we compare the simulated sigma_rv distributions to the …
We use extensive model grids to estimate the global parameters of four partially-eclipsing W UMa contact binaries near the period cutoff. All four systems consist of K-type main sequence primaries and M-type secondaries that appear undersized and underluminous for their masses because of the energy transfer through the common envelope. Three of the four stars exhibit light curve asymmetry that is explained in terms of magnetic activity and modeled with dark spots. We discuss the reliability of the photometric mass ratios and derived absolute parameters in context of total or partial eclipses a…
This work studies the significance of the lightcurve intrinsic variability in the numerical modeling of contact binaries. Using synthetic light curves we are showing that the starspot-based intrinsic variability increases the apparent mass ratio by $Δq=5$%. For systems with orbital period $P>0.3 d$ the effect of intrinsic variability averaged over long time cancels each other out with the Kepler Mission-like phase smearing. Further, we analyse 47 totally eclipsing Kepler Mission contact binaries. We found a sharp cutoff of the intrinsic variability at P = 0.45 d. With the light curve numerical…
The two objects 1SWASP J150822.80-054236.9 and 1SWASP J160156.04+202821.6 were initially detected from their SuperWASP archived light curves as candidate eclipsing binaries with periods close to the short-period cut-off of the orbital period distribution of main sequence binaries, at ~0.2 d. Here, using INT spectroscopic data, we confirm them as double-lined spectroscopic and eclipsing binaries, in contact configuration. Following modelling of their visual light curves and radial velocity curves, we determine their component and system parameters to precisions between ~2 and 11%. The former sy…
Measuring the stellar rotation of one of the components in eclipsing binaries (EBs) or planetary systems is a challenging task. The difficulty is mainly due to the complexity of analyzing, in the same light curve, the signal from the stellar rotation mixed with the transit signal of a stellar or sub-stellar companion, like a brown dwarf or planet. There are many methods to correct the long-term trend of the light curve. However, the correction often erases the signal of the stellar rotation from spots crossing the visible stellar disk and other weaker signals like planets. In this work, we pre…
We report the results of a search for variable stars in the open cluster NGC 2141. Ten variable stars are detected, among which nine are new variable stars and they are classified as three short period W UMa type eclipsing binaries, two EA type eclipsing binaries, one EB type eclipsing binary, one very short period RS CVn type eclipsing binary, one d type RR Lyrae variable star, and one unknown type variable star. The membership and physical properties are discussed, based on their light curves, positions in the CMDs, spatial locations and periods. A known EB type eclipsing binary is also iden…
Our long term aim is to derive model-independent stellar masses and distances for long period massive binaries by combining apparent astrometric orbit with double-lined radial velocity amplitudes (SB2). We follow-up ten O+O binaries with AMBER, PIONIER and GRAVITY at the VLTI. Here, we report about 130 astrometric observations over the last 7 years. We combine this dataset with distance estimates to compute the total mass of the systems. We also compute preliminary individual component masses for the five systems with available SB2 radial velocities. Nine over the ten binaries have their three…
The results of our speckle interferometric observations of young binaries VY Tau and XZ Tau are presented. For the first time, we found a relative displacement of VY Tau components as well as a preliminary orbit for XZ Tau. It appeared that the orbit is appreciably non-circular and is inclined by $i \lesssim 47^o$ from the plane of the sky. It means that the rotation axis of XZ Tau A and the axis of its jet are significantly non-perpendicular to the orbital plane. We found that the average brightness of XZ Tau had been increasing from the beginning of the last century up to the mid-thirties an…
Binaries play key roles in determining stellar parameters and exploring stellar evolution models. We build a catalog of 88 eclipsing binaries with spectroscopic information, taking advantage of observations from both the Large Sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) and the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) surveys. A software pipeline is constructed to identify binary candidates by examining their light curves. The orbital periods of binaries are derived from the Lomb-Scargle method. The key distinguishing features of eclipsing binaries are recognized by a new filter \texti…
Based on over 3000 BV images of M4 collected in years 1995-2009 we obtain light curves of 22 variables, 10 of which are newly detected objects. We identify four detached eclipsing binaries and eight contact binaries. Accurate periods are found for all but two variables. Nineteen variables are proper-motion members of the cluster, and the remaining three are field stars. Five variables are optical counterparts of X-ray sources. For one of the variables unassociated with X-ray sources we report a flare lasting for about 90 min and reaching an amplitude of 0.11 mag in V. One of the new contact bi…
The available minima timings of 14 selected eclipsing binaries (V1297 Cas, HD 24105, KU Aur, GU CMa, GH Mon, AZ Vel, DI Lyn, DK Her, GQ Dra, V624 Her, V1134 Her, KIC 6187893, V1928 Aql, V2486 Cyg) were collected and analyzed. Using the automatic telescopes, surveys, and satellite data, we derived more than 2500 times of eclipses, accompanied with our own ground-based observations. These data were used to detect the period variations in these multiple systems. The eclipse timing variations were described using the third-body hypothesis and the light-time effect. Their respective periods were de…
We present results of our spectroscopic observations of nine detached eclipsing binaries (DEBs), selected from the $Kepler$ Eclipsing Binary Catalog, that only show one set of spectral lines. Radial velocities (RVs) were calculated from the high resolution spectra obtained with the HIDES instrument, attached to the 1.88-m telescope at the Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, and from the public APOGEE archive. In our sample we found five single-lined binaries, with one component dominating the spectrum. The orbital and light curve solutions were found for four of them, and compared with isochron…
Possible M-type contact binaries were investigated by selecting W UMa-type variables with orbital periods below the 0.22-day cutoff. Gaia parallaxes were combined with Gaia and 2MASS photometry to obtain G and J-band absolute magnitudes of 674 red variable stars catalogued as contact binaries in the VSX database. The absolute magnitude of main sequence cool dwarfs varies strongly with spectral type, which was used to create a selection of 218 systems with primaries potentially of spectral types M0-M3. Lightcurves of the 46 systems with lowest near-infrared luminosities were inspected individua…
We use 20 years of astrometric data from the RECONS program on the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9-m to provide new insight into multiple star systems in the solar neighborhood. We provide new and updated parallaxes for 210 systems and derive nine high-quality astrometric orbits with periods of 2.49 - 16.63 years. Using a total of 542 systems' parallaxes from RECONS, we compare systems within 25 parsecs to Gaia DR2 to define criteria for selecting unresolved astrometric multiples from the DR2 results. We find that three out of four unresolved multi-star red dwarf systems within 25 pc in DR2 have parallax_erro…
We present the first analysis of results from the SuperWASP Variable Stars Zooniverse project, which is aiming to classify 1.6 million phase-folded light curves of candidate stellar variables observed by the SuperWASP all sky survey with periods detected in the SuperWASP periodicity catalogue. The resultant data set currently contains $>$1 million classifications corresponding to $>$500,000 object-period combinations, provided by citizen scientist volunteers. Volunteer-classified light curves have $\sim$89 per cent accuracy for detached and semi-detached eclipsing binaries, but only $\sim$9 pe…
AN Cam is a little-studied eclipsing binary containing somewhat evolved components in an orbit with a period of 21.0 d and an eccentricity of 0.47. A spectroscopic orbit based on photoelectric radial velocities was published in 1977. AN Cam has been observed using the TESS satellite in three sectors: the data were obtained in long-cadence mode and cover nine eclipses. By modelling these data and published radial velocities we obtain masses of 1.380 +/- 0.021 Msun and 1.402 +/- 0.025 Msun, and radii of 2.159 +/- 0.012 Rsun and 2.646 +/- 0.014 Rsun. We also derive a precise orbital ephemeris fro…
Extremely Low Mass Ratio Contact Binaries. II. The First Photometric and Spectroscopic Investigations of Six Systems with Orbital Periods Longer than 0.5 days
We have conducted a deep photometric survey of a 0.5 deg x 0.5 deg area of the Galactic Plane using the WFI instrument on the 2.2-m ESO telescope on La Silla, Chile. The dataset comprises a total of 267 R-band images, 204 from a 16 day observation run in 2005, supplemented by 63 images from a six week period in 2002. Our reduction employed the new numerical kernel difference image analysis method as implemented in the PYSIS3 code and resulted in more than 500,000 lightcurves of stars down to a magnitude limit of R ~ 24.5. A search for variable stars resulted in the detection of 1318 variables …
Both high precision CCD photometric and H$alpha$ line studies are presented for an overcontact binary ASAS J082243+1927.0. The light curve exhibits a total eclipse at secondary minima along with an O'Connell effect. The light curve was modeled using the Wilson Devinney code and the best solution provides the mass ratio q = 0.106 and fill-out factor f = 72%. These parameters indicate that the system is a low mass ratio overcontact binary with a high degree of geometrical contact. The H alpha line equivalent width varied at different phases and it is found that the line is possibly filled-in at …
We present the results of our 2nd radial velocity monitoring campaign, carried out with the Échelle spectrograph FLECHAS at the University Observatory Jena in the course of the Großschwabhausen binary survey between December 2016 and June 2018. The aim of this project is to obtain precise radial velocity measurements for spectroscopic binary stars in order to redetermine, verify, improve and constrain their Keplerian orbital solutions. In this paper we describe the observations, data reduction and analysis and present the results of this project. In total, we have taken 721 RV measurements of …
The cut-off mass ratio is under debate for contact binaries. In this paper, we present the investigation of two contact binaries with mass ratios close to the low mass ratio limit. It is found that the mass ratios of VSX J082700.8+462850 (hereafter J082700) and 1SWASP J132829.37+555246.1 (hereafter J132829) are both less than 0.1 ($q\sim0.055$ for J082700, and $q\sim0.089$ for J132829). J082700 is a shallow contact binary with a contact degree of $\sim$19%, and J132829 is a deep contact system with a fillout factor of $\sim$70%. The $O-C$ diagram analysis indicated that both the two systems ma…
We present the list of variable stars we found in the Kepler superstamp data covering approximately 9 arcminutes from the central region of NGC 6791. We classified the variable stars based on the variability type and we established their cluster membership based on the available Gaia Early Data Release 3 astrometry, by means of the Bayesian Gaussian mixture models. In total we found 278 variable objects, among which 17 binaries, 45 pulsators, 62 rotational and five unclassified variables are cluster members. The remaining 28 binaries, 25 pulsators, 83 rotational, four unclassified and nine uni…
