Abstract Details
| Name: Malu S Affiliation: Department of Astronomy, Osmania University, Hyderabad Conference ID: ASI2016_680 Title : KP103285: A Low Mass Ratio Overcontact Binary System Authors and Co-Authors : Malu S., Sriram, K. and Vivekananda Rao P., Department of Astronomy, Osmania University, Hyderabad Abstract Type : Poster Abstract Category : Stars, The Milky Way Galaxy and its neighbours Abstract : Over contact binary systems are considered to be an extremely vital tool to understand many important astrophysical phenomena including merger, the underlying mechanisms of the stellar dynamo process and stellar evolution. Their light curves show totalities at their minima which is indicative of the fact that they are low mass ratio systems. These systems are short period binaries (< 0.8 days) that often show systematic period variations caused due to mass transfer from one component to the other. Another striking feature presented by these systems are their low angular momentum configuration which is possibly due to the presence of a third component. We present the R band photometric analysis and the period variation study of the contact binary system KP103285. The CCD photometric observations of this system were performed at the IGO 2m telescope located at Pune, during January 2015. Along with our obtained times of minima, we have also collected the times of minima for the system from Pepper et al (2008), the NSVS and ASAS databases for over a duration of 16 years. The R band photometric solution of the system was obtained using the Wilson-Devinney (W-D) code. The obtained solution suggests that this system has a low mass ratio of 0.16 and an inclination of ~89°. The O-C diagram shows a systematic period variation (parabolic in nature) which is indicative of mass transfer from the secondary to the primary component. A secular increase is observed in the period of the binary system at the rate of dP/dt ~ 0.0948 sec/yr. Residuals obtained after removing the parabolic term in the O-C diagram show a quasi sinusoidal variation of period ~ 10.94 years which has an amplitude of 0.0069 days. This could be an indication of the possible presence of a third body. Further observations can help in verifying and confirming the obtained result. |