Twenty-three New Heartbeat Star Systems Discovered Based on TESS Data

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of 23 new heartbeat star systems using TESS data, analyzing their orbital parameters and eccentricity-period relations to enhance understanding of eccentric binary star evolution.

Contribution

The study introduces a new set of 23 heartbeat star systems identified from TESS data and derives their orbital parameters using an improved MCMC-based model.

Findings

Orbital periods range from 2.7 to 20 days.

Eccentricities range from 0.08 to 0.70.

Positive correlation between eccentricity and period.

Abstract

Heartbeat stars (HBSs) are ideal astrophysical laboratories to study the formation and evolution of binary stars in eccentric orbits and the internal structural changes of their components under strong tidal action. We discover 23 new HBSs based on TESS photometric data. The orbital parameters, including orbital period, eccentricity, orbital inclination, argument of periastron, and epoch of periastron passage of these HBSs are derived by using a corrected version of Kumar et al.'s model based on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. The preliminary results show that these HBSs have orbital periods in the range from 2.7 to 20 days and eccentricities in the range from 0.08 to 0.70. The eccentricity-period relation of these objects shows a positive correlation between eccentricity and period, and also shows the existence of orbital circularization. The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram shows that the HBSs are not all located in a particular area. The distribution of the derived parameters suggests a selection bias within the TESS survey towards massive HBSs with shorter orbital periods, higher temperatures and luminosities. These objects are a very useful source to study the structure and evolution of eccentricity orbit binaries and to extend the TESS HBS catalog.