Computer Science
Scientific paper
Sep 1971
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1971natur.233..110d&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 233, Issue 5315, pp. 110-112 (1971).
Computer Science
21
Scientific paper
β LYRAE is one of the most controversial and puzzling of binary systems1. The central issue concerns the absolute masses of the two components. The one-spectrum radial-velocity curve does not reveal what those masses are, but any pair of masses satisfying its mass function make the system remarkable. Table 1 gives pairs of masses which satisfy the observed 8.5 Msolar mass function2. Here q=MBRT/MFNT and the entries in the table are the minimum masses allowable-that is, the orbital inclination angle is assumed to be 90°. Early investigators, faced with the absence of the secondary component in the spectrograms at all phases, assumed that the components of the system obey a mass-luminosity law and favoured a mass ratio considerably larger than unity. This, however, results in very large masses, especially for the B8 primary. Three arguments have since been put forward which make the choice q > 1 dubious. First, Sahade3 has called attention to the behaviour of the unusual emission features present in the spectrograms, noting that, should they be associated with the secondary star, a value for the mass ratio considerably less than unity results. Second, a similar small value comes from a distance determination by Abt4, which was based on β Lyrae's co-motion with few stars. As these were found to be ordinary main sequence objects, the absolute magnitude of β Lyrae was determined to be Mv=-3.4, which agrees with the spectroscopic luminosity class. So modest a luminosity can hardly be associated with such a massive primary component as indicated for q > 1. Finally, Woolf5 has used Abt's distance in combination with an assumed brightness temperature to find the absolute area of the primary star and thus its absolute ``radius''. Further, assuming that β Lyrae A fills its Roche lobe, this ``radius'' is compared to the observed value of a1 sin i to obtain the mass ratio of the system, again giving q<1.
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