Evolutionary states and triplicity of four massive semi-detached binaries with long-term decreasing orbital periods in the LMC

TL;DR

This study investigates four massive semi-detached binaries in the LMC with decreasing orbital periods, revealing mass transfer, angular momentum loss, and possible third-body influences, thus providing insights into massive binary evolution.

Contribution

It identifies and analyzes four semi-detached massive binaries with long-term period decreases, highlighting the roles of mass transfer, angular momentum loss, and multiplicity in their evolution.

Findings

One system shows mass transfer from primary to secondary causing period decrease.

Three systems exhibit period decrease likely due to angular momentum loss.

Three systems show cyclic period variations suggesting third bodies.

Abstract

The massive semi-detached binary with a long-term decreasing orbital period may involve a rapid mass-transfer phase in Case A, and thus they are good astrophysical laboratories for investigating the evolution of massive binary stars. In this work, by using the long-term observational light curves from the OGLE project and other data in the low-metallicity LMC, four semi-detached massive binaries with long-term decreases in the orbital periods are detected from 165 EB-type close binaries. It is found that the more massive component in S07798 is filling its Roche lobe where the period decrease is caused by mass transfer from the primary to the secondary. However, the other three (S03065, S12631, S16873) are semi-detached binaries with a lobe-filling secondary where the mass transfer between the components should cause the period to increase if the angular momentum is conservative. The long-term period decreases in these three systems may be caused by the angular momentum loss. Additionally, the orbital periods of three systems (S03065, S07798, S16873) are detected to show cyclic variation with periods shorter than 11 years, which can be plausibly explained by the presence of close-in third bodies in these massive binaries. Based on all of these results, it is suggested that the detected four semi-detached binaries almost have multiplicity. The companion stars are crucial for the origin and evolution of these massive close binaries.