| Issue |
EAS Publications Series
Volume 64, 2013
Setting a New Standard in the Analysis of Binary Stars
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 131 - 134 | |
| Section | Setting a New Standard in the Analysis of Intermediate and Low-Mass Binaries | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eas/1364018 | |
| Published online | 25 February 2014 | |
K. Pavlovski, A. Tkachenko and G. Torres (eds)
EAS Publications Series, 64 (2013) 131-134
Close-in companions to contact binary stars
1 Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), PO Box 110, 650011 Kunming, China
2 Key laboratory of the structure and evolution of celestial objects, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 110, 650011 Kunming, PR China
3 Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic
W UMa-type contact binaries are composed of two late-type main-sequence stars, where both components are filling their critical Roche Lobes and sharing a common convective envelope. Their formation and evolution are unsolved problems in stellar astrophysics. This kind of binary systems have the lowest angular momentum and shortest orbital periods among main-sequence binaries. One of the possibilities for their origin is that the angular momentums of binary stars are transferred from the central binaries to close-in companions. In this paper, we will summarize some of our recent progresses on searching for close-in companions to contact binary stars, including the closest stellar companion to a contact binary at an orbital separation of about 0.8 AU. Then, based on the observational properties of those close-in companions, the formation and the evolution of contact binaries will be discussed.
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2014