Forty eclipsing binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud: fundamental parameters and Cloud distance

Details Forty eclipsing binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud: fundamental parameters and Cloud distance Forty eclipsing binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud: fundamental parameters and Cloud distance

2004-11-24

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0411672v1

Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.357:304-324,2005

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

paper accepted on 22 November 2004 for publication by MNRAS; 26 pages, 6 tables, 12 figures

Scientific paper

10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08653.x

We have conducted a programme to determine the fundamental parameters of a substantial number of eclipsing binaries of spectral types O and B in the Small Magellanic Cloud. New spectroscopic data, obtained with the two-degree-field multi-object spectrograph on the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope, have been used in conjunction with photometry from the Optical Gravitational Lens Experiment (OGLE-II) database of SMC eclipsing binaries. Previously we reported results for 10 systems; in this second and concluding paper we present spectral types, masses, radii, temperatures, surface gravities and luminosities for the components of a further 40 binaries. The full sample of 50 OB-type eclipsing systems is the largest single set of fundamental parameters determined for high-mass binaries in any galaxy. We find that 21 of the systems studied are in detached configurations, 28 are in semi-detached post-mass-transfer states, and one is a contact binary. Each system provides a primary distance indicator. We find a mean distance modulus to the SMC of 18.91+/-0.03+/-0.1 (internal and external uncertainties; D=60.6+/-1.0 kpc). This value represents one of the most precise available determinations of the distance to the SMC.

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