The Orbit and Properties of the Spectroscopic-Eclipsing- Interferometric Trips System ξ Tauri

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Scientific paper

Photometric observations obtained during the HIPPARCOS mission show that xi Tauri is an eclipsing binary with eclipses that are at least 0.1 mag. deep. The star has also been observed as an interferometric binary by a number of different groups, but as yet no one has published a solution for the orbit. Spectrograms obtained with the Cassegrain spectrograph on the 1.88 m telescope at the David Dunlap Observatory show that the system consists of bright, broad-lined B8 star in orbit about a close pair of sharp-lined A stars. We have used radial velocities measured from more than 100 years of spectrograms from the Lick, Perkins and David Dunlap Observatories to derive the spectroscopic orbital elements for this system. The ratio of the orbital periods, 145.1317 (40) d to 7.1466440 (49) is among the smallest known for triple systems. The inner orbit is circular, while the outer orbit has a modest eccentricity e=0.149. We that the eclipses of the inner pair are total, but additional photometry is required to prove this. In any event, the orbital inclination must be very close to 90 degrees. If we assume this is correct, then the masses of the inner pair are 2.21 (2) and 2.12(2) solar masses. When this is combined with the results of the outer orbit, we find that the inclination of this orbit is either 63 (4) degrees or 116 (4) degrees. This yields a primary mass of 3.12 (16) solar masses. Both the depth of eclipses and the strengths of the lines of the A-star lines are inconsistent with some of the interferometric estimates of the magnitude difference between the B-star and the close pair of A-stars. We will present a combined solution for the astrometric and spectroscopic data and comment of the stability of the system.

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