The First Photometric Study of the Short-period Shallow Contact System LO Comae

TL;DR

This study presents the first complete photometric analysis of LO Com, revealing it as a shallow contact W UMa binary with a decreasing orbital period, likely due to mass transfer between components.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed photometric light curves and analysis for LO Com, identifying its contact configuration and period variation.

Findings

LO Com is a W-type W UMa binary with a contact degree of 3.2%.

The orbital period of LO Com is decreasing at a rate of 1.18×10^-7 days/year.

The period decrease is likely caused by mass transfer from the more massive to the less massive star.

Abstract

In this paper, the first complete photometric light curves in the B, V, and R passbands for an eclipsing binary LO Com are presented, and the photometric solution for the LO Com is derived by analyzing these light curves by using the Wilson and Devinney code. From the photometric solution, it is found that the LO Com is a W-type W UMa binary with a mass ratio of q={m}2/{m}1=2.478 and a contact degree of f=(3.2+/- 0.25) % . By combining the two new minimum times with those published earlier in the literature, we have found that the (O - C) curve shows a downward parabolic variation corresponding to a long-term decrease in the orbital period with a rate of {d}P/{d}t=-1.18*{10}-7 days yr-1. This long-term decrease in its orbital period may be caused by mass transfer from the more massive component to the less massive one.