Third components with elliptical orbits in the eclipsing binaries

TL;DR

This study analyzed 9 eclipsing binary stars to detect third components with elliptical orbits through light-time effect oscillations in O-C diagrams, revealing orbital parameters and mass transfer rates.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new method using MAVKA software and Python code to identify and characterize elliptical third components in eclipsing binaries from observational data.

Findings

Detected sinusoidal oscillations indicating third components

Computed orbital elements of third components

Estimated mass transfer rates in systems with parabolic trends

Abstract

In our research, we studied 9 eclipsing binary stars: AR Lac, U CrB, S Equ, SU Boo, VV UMa, WW Gem, YY Eri, V0404 Lyr, HP Aur. We collected large sets of moments of minima from BRNO and observational data from AAVSO databases. Then, we obtained moments of minima for AAVSO observations (totally - 397 minima) using method of approximation with symmetric polynomial, realized in software MAVKA. This software was provided by Kateryna D. Andrych and Ivan L. Andronov. After we combined obtained moments of minima with data taken from BRNO and plotted O-C diagrams. For all stars these diagrams represented sinusoidal-like oscillations with superposition of linear (for SU Boo, VV UMa, WW Gem, V0404 Lyr and HP Aur) or parabolic trend (for AR Lac, U CrB, S Equ and YY Eri). The oscillations could be described as presence of the third component, which does not take part in eclipses, but causes the well-known light-time effect (LTE). That effect could be easily detected using long data series of observations. However, the oscillations have clear asymmetry, which we interpreted as elliptical shape of the third components orbit. Parabolic trend we explained as mass transfer between components of binary system. For all stars we computed minimal possible mass of the third component. In addition, we developed our own code in computed language Python and using it we computed orbital elements of the third component. Moreover, for stars with parabolic trend we calculated rate of the mass transfer. Finally, for all computed values we estimated errors.