Towards an Accurate Determination of Parameters for Very Massive Stars: the Eclipsing Binary LMC-SC1-105

TL;DR

This study accurately measures the fundamental parameters of a very massive binary star system, demonstrating that targeting bright blue eclipsing binaries is effective for studying massive stars at low metallicity.

Contribution

It provides precise measurements of masses and radii for very massive stars in an eclipsing binary, highlighting a successful strategy for studying such stars.

Findings

Masses of 30.9 and 13.0 solar masses for the binary components.

The less massive star is filling its Roche lobe, indicating mass transfer.

Spectral variations suggest the Struve-Sahade effect related to mass transfer.

Abstract

This paper presents a photometric and spectroscopic study of the bright blue eclipsing binary LMC-SC1-105, selected from the OGLE catalog as a candidate host of very massive stars (>=30Mo). The system is found to be a double-lined spectroscopic binary, which indeed contains massive stars. The masses and radii of the components are M1= 30.9+/-1.0 Mo, M2= 13.0+/-0.7 Mo, and R1= 15.1+/-0.2 Ro, R2= 11.9+/-0.2 Ro, respectively. The less massive star is found to be filling its Roche lobe, indicating the system has undergone mass-transfer. The spectra of LMC-SC1-105 display the Struve-Sahade effect, with the HeI lines of the secondary appearing stronger when it is receding and causing the spectral types to change with phase (O8+O8 to O7+O8.5). This effect could be related to the mass-transfer in this system. To date, accurate (<=10%) fundamental parameters have only been measured for 15 stars with masses greater than 30 Mo, with the reported measurements contributing valuable data on the fundamental parameters of very massive stars at low metallicity. The results of this work demonstrate that the strategy of targeting the brightest blue stars in eclipsing binaries is an effective way of studying very massive stars.