Optimal Eclipsing Binary Systems for Distance Determination

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

I develop a method to estimate the errors in fitting the light curves of detached eclipsing binary systems to hypothetical observations. Gravitational microlensing searches will produce a large catalog of binary systems, making it possible to choose optimal systems for follow-up photometry to get accurate radii of the stars. I use a simple model with circular orbits, small eclipse widths, fixed linear limb darkening coefficients, but with variable ``third light'', and I require the eclipse durations to be short. The third light can be determined from the light curve, so field crowding can be handled. In this restricted case the shape of the light curve obeys some simple scaling laws which simplify the multi-dimensional minimization problem, and suggest consistency checks to be used in the process of reducing light curve data. I estimate the fractional error in a determination of the radii of the stars as a function of the binary system configuration. This data is then used to give a range of possible accuracies depending on the eclipse depths. This information then gives an estimate of the photometric accuracy required to get distances with a given precision to objects like globular clusters, the galactic bulge, M31, M33, the SMC, and the LMC.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Optimal Eclipsing Binary Systems for Distance Determination does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Optimal Eclipsing Binary Systems for Distance Determination, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Optimal Eclipsing Binary Systems for Distance Determination will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1858502

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.