Photometric and Spectroscopic Study of Two Low Mass Ratio Contact Binary Systems: CRTS J225828.7-121122 and CRTS J030053.5+230139

TL;DR

This paper presents photometric and spectroscopic analysis of two low mass ratio contact binary systems, revealing their stability and detailed physical characteristics, including density and luminosity differences.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of these two contact binaries with low mass ratios, demonstrating their stability and physical properties.

Findings

Both systems have mass ratios less than 0.3.

The systems are likely stable and not merging.

Secondaries are denser and larger than main sequence counterparts.

Abstract

The study reports photometric and spectroscopic observations of two recently recognised contact binary systems. Both systems show total eclipses and analysis of the light curves indicate both have a very low mass ratios of less than 0.3. We derive absolute parameters from colour and distance based calibrations and show that although both have low mass ratios they are likely to be in a stable orbit and unlikely to merge. In other respects both systems have characteristics similar to other contact binaries with the secondary larger and brighter than main sequence counterparts and we also find that the secondary is considerably denser than the primary in both systems.