An X-ray study of coronally connected active eclipsing binaries

TL;DR

This study provides a detailed X-ray analysis of five coronally connected eclipsing binaries, revealing their coronal structures, activity levels, and flare characteristics, with implications for understanding stellar magnetic activity in binary systems.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed X-ray imaging and spectral analysis of these specific coronally connected eclipsing binaries, highlighting their coronal configurations and activity features.

Findings

Coronal structures are in contact or over-contact configurations.

Primary stars are 1.7 to 4 times X-ray brighter than companions.

Detected seven flaring events with energies up to 27×10^{33} erg.

Abstract

We present a detailed X-ray analysis and imaging of stellar coronae of five coronally connected eclipsing binaries, namely, 44 Boo, DV Psc, ER Vul, XY UMa, and TX Cnc. Both components of these binaries are found to be active. The X-ray light curves of detached and semidetached type systems show eclipsed-like features, whereas no evidence for coronal eclipsing is shown by the contact type systems. The X-ray light curve of DV Psc shows the O'Connell-like effect where the first maximum is found to be brighter than that of the second. Results of the coronal imaging using three-dimensional deconvolution of X-ray light curves show the coronae of all these binaries are either in the contact or over-contact configuration, with the primary being 1.7 $-$ 4 times X-ray brighter than its companion. In the current sample, a minimum of 30$-$50 \% of total UV emission is found to originate from the photosphere and positively correlated with the X-ray emission. X-ray spectra of these systems are well explained by two-temperature plasma models. The temperature corresponding to cool and hot components of plasma are found to be in the ranges of 0.25$-$0.64 and 0.9$-$1.1 keV, respectively. For the majority of binaries in the sample, the phase-resolved X-ray spectral analysis shows the orbital modulation in X-ray luminosity and emission measure corresponding to the hot component. A total of seven flaring events are also detected in the four systems with the flare energy in the range of (1.95$-$27.0)$\times$10$^{33}$ erg and loop length of the order of 10$^{9-11}$ cm.