A New Low-Mass Eclipsing Binary from SDSS-II

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery and characterization of a new low-mass eclipsing binary system from SDSS-II, providing detailed stellar parameters that align with theoretical models and highlighting the potential of future surveys to find similar systems.

Contribution

It introduces a newly discovered low-mass eclipsing binary with detailed measurements, demonstrating the feasibility of identifying such systems in large photometric surveys.

Findings

Measured stellar masses and radii agree with models

System's short orbital period of 0.407 days

Future surveys can detect many similar systems

Abstract

We present observations of a new low-mass double-lined eclipsing binary system discovered using repeat observations of the celestial equator from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II. Using near-infrared photometry and optical spectroscopy we have measured the properties of this short-period [P=0.407037(14) d] system and its two components. We find the following parameters for the two components: M_1=0.272+/-0.020 M_sun, R_1=0.268+/-0.010 R_sun, M_2=0.240+/-0.022 M_sun, R_2=0.248+/-0.0090 R_sun, T_1=3320+/-130 K, T_2=3300+/-130 K. The masses and radii of the two components of this system agree well with theoretical expectations based on models of low-mass stars, within the admittedly large errors. Future synoptic surveys like Pan-STARRS and LSST will produce a wealth of information about low-mass eclipsing systems and should make it possible, with an increased reliance on follow-up observations, to detect many systems with low-mass and sub-stellar companions. With the large numbers of objects for which these surveys will produce high-quality photometry, we suggest that it becomes possible to identify such systems even with sparse time sampling and a relatively small number of individual observations.