Period changes in six contact binaries: WZ And, V803 Aql, DF Hya, PY Lyr, FZ Ori, and AH Tau

TL;DR

This study investigates long-term period variations in six contact binary stars to detect potential third or fourth bodies using O-C diagram analysis and Light-Time Effect modeling, revealing companions with diverse orbital characteristics.

Contribution

It is the first to apply Light-Time Effect analysis to these binaries for third body detection and includes new minima times from observations.

Findings

Third bodies with orbital periods from 49 to 100 years identified.

Eccentricities of third bodies range from 0.0 to 0.56.

In WZ And, a fourth-body LITE variation was also detected.

Abstract

Six contact binaries lacking a period analysis have been chosen to search for the presence of a third body. The O-C diagrams of these binaries were analyzed with the least-squares method by using all available times of minima. Ten new minima times, obtained from our observations, were included in the present research. The Light-Time Effect was adopted for the first time as the main cause for the detailed description of the long-term period changes. Third bodies were found with orbital periods from 49 up to 100 years, and eccentricities from 0.0 to 0.56 for the selected binaries. In one case (WZ And), a fourth-body LITE variation was also applied. The mass functions and the minimal masses of such bodies were also calculated and a possible angular separation and magnitude differences were discussed for a prospective interferometric discovery of these bodies.