The investigation of physical mechanisms for orbital period changes of the semidetached binary UW Vir

Details The investigation of physical mechanisms for orbital period changes of the semidetached binary UW Vir The investigation of physical mechanisms for orbital period changes of the semidetached binary UW Vir

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009acasn..50...29z&link_type=abstract

Acta Astronomica Sinica, vol. 50, no. 1, p. 29-36

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Binaries: Eclipsing, Stars: Variables, Stars: Evolution

Scientific paper

Orbital period variations of the Algol-type semi-detached binary UW Vir are analyzed. It is shown that the period of UW Vir is increasing rapidly (dP/dt=+1.37×10-6 day/year) while it undergoes a cyclic change with a period of 62.3 years. Based on the physical parameters published by Brancewicz & Dworak (1980), mechanisms that may cause the period variations are investigated. The analysis indicates that the cyclic period change can be explained by the light-travel time effect via the presence of a tertiary component with M3≥0.94M&sun;. Since no observational information was reported for the third component, it may be a compact object (e.g., a white dwarf star). The rapid period increase was interpreted by the mass transfer from the secondary to the primary component (dM2/dt=1.43×10-7 M&sun;/year), which is in agreement with the semi-detached configuration with a lobe-filling secondary. According the evolutionary theory of binary, Algols should be on a slow mass-transfer evolutionary stage on the nuclear time-scales of the secondary. However, it is found that the time-scale of the period increase is much shorter than the nuclear time-scales of the secondary, but is close the thermal time scale. These suggest that(1) UW Vir is on a rapid mass transfer evolutionary stage on the thermal time scale of the secondary or(2) the angular momentum transfer from the circumbinary disk to the central binary may cause the observed rapid period increase.

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