Demystifying the Confounding Long-Period Eclipsing Binary Epsilon Aurigae - Investigating Clues from its past behavior and possible Stellar Associates

Details Demystifying the Confounding Long-Period Eclipsing Binary Epsilon Aurigae - Investigating Clues from its past behavior and possible Stellar Associates Demystifying the Confounding Long-Period Eclipsing Binary Epsilon Aurigae - Investigating Clues from its past behavior and possible Stellar Associates

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21915334j&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #153.34

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Scientific paper

This research is focused on demystifying the unusual bright long-period (P = 27.1 years) eclipsing binary ɛ Aurigae (F0 Ia + disk). We are attempting to cut the "Gordian Knot” to distinguish between two attractive competing models that have been advanced to explain the many unusual properties of this unique binary. According to the "Higher mass" model, the F-supergiant is assumed to be a luminous young (high mass: M > 15 M&sun;) F0 Ia star. In this case its huge, cool disk-companion is a proto-planetary disk or an embedded high-mass main-sequence star that has captured a significant mass from the winds of its rapidly evolving companion. In "Lower mass” model the F-supergiant star is assumed to be a post-AGB star ( 2-3 M&sun;) while the large disk companion (of similar mass) is the remnant of a recent mass-losing episode that Post-AGB stars frequently undergo. To distinguish between these models we have followed two approaches. We have investigated the measured brightness of ɛ Aur over two millennia (using transformed visual measures from Ptolemy and Sufi and others up to the present). We investigated possible brightness changes expected from mass-loss/ exchange events. No significant (larger than 0.5 mag) changes in brightness were found. We also have estimated the distance to the binary by identifying stars within ½ degree that appear be associated with the binary. Stars with similar kinematics, color-excesses and ISM lines to ɛ Aur were found. This association of ɛ Aur with these possible common cluster stars indicates d 1.0 +/- 0.15 kpc. In this case, the F-supergiant would have Mv -8.0-mag which is appropriate for high-mass F-supergiant but too luminous for a post-AGB object. This research is supported by NSF/RUI Grant AST-1009903.

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