Modeling Multi-Wavelength Stellar Astrometry. I. SIM Lite Observations of Interacting Binaries

TL;DR

This paper models the complex astrometric motions of interacting binary star systems using a modified light curve code, demonstrating SIM Lite's potential to determine orbits and masses in multi-component systems with multi-wavelength data.

Contribution

The authors developed the REFLUX code to simulate flux-weighted astrometric motions in interacting binaries, enabling orbit and mass determination with SIM Lite.

Findings

SIM Lite can determine astrometric orbits for bright interacting binaries.

Multi-wavelength photometry is essential for disentangling multiple spectral components.

SIM Lite will provide accurate inclinations and insights into binary evolution.

Abstract

Interacting binaries consist of a secondary star which fills or is very close to filling its Roche lobe, resulting in accretion onto the primary star, which is often, but not always, a compact object. In many cases, the primary star, secondary star, and the accretion disk can all be significant sources of luminosity. SIM Lite will only measure the photocenter of an astrometric target, and thus determining the true astrometric orbits of such systems will be difficult. We have modified the Eclipsing Light Curve code (Orosz & Hauschildt 2000) to allow us to model the flux-weighted reflex motions of interacting binaries, in a code we call REFLUX. This code gives us sufficient flexibility to investigate nearly every configuration of interacting binary. We find that SIM Lite will be able to determine astrometric orbits for all sufficiently bright interacting binaries where the primary or secondary star dominates the luminosity. For systems where there are multiple components that comprise the spectrum in the optical bandpass accessible to SIM Lite, we find it is possible to obtain absolute masses for both components, although multi-wavelength photometry will be required to disentangle the multiple components. In all cases, SIM Lite will at least yield accurate inclinations, and provide valuable information that will allow us to begin to understand the complex evolution of mass-transferring binaries. It is critical that SIM Lite maintains a multi-wavelength capability to allow for the proper deconvolution of the astrometric orbits in multi-component systems.