The A Supergiant Eclipsing Binary BM Cas: An Evolved, Intermediate Mass System

TL;DR

This study analyzes the evolved intermediate-mass eclipsing binary BM Cas, revealing its potential status as an Algol or post-Algol system with a Roche-lobe filling supergiant and a possibly more massive secondary.

Contribution

It provides detailed spectroscopic and photometric analysis suggesting BM Cas is an evolved system with a complex circumstellar environment and possible mass transfer history.

Findings

The primary's radial velocities are consistent with previous measurements.

The system's properties suggest it is a Roche-lobe filling supergiant in an evolved binary.

The secondary may be more massive than the primary, indicating a post-mass transfer state.

Abstract

The evolutionary state of the 198 day eclipsing binary BM Cas is examined using spectra that cover five orbital cycles. Radial velocities measured from SiII 6347 and SiII 6371 track the motion of the primary, and a mass function is found that is similar to that obtained by Popper(1977) from MgII 4481. Absorption from a circumsystem shell complicates efforts to measure stellar velocities from FeII lines. Many of the characteristics of Halpha emission and absorption that are associated with the shell vary in sync with the motion of the primary, and it is suggested that the shell may form from material that exits the system from L2. The infrared spectral-energy distribution departs from that of an A supergiant only at wavelengths > 5um, and models are examined in which the secondary is obscured by an opaque envelope. Archived V band photometry is compared with model light curves, and it is concluded that the A supergiant is close to filling, or is filling, its Roche lobe, and that the as-yet undetected secondary may be more massive than the primary. Based on the overall properties of BM Cas and its environment, we suggest that it is an Algol or post-Algol system, in which the A supergiant was originally the more massive component. If this is the case then the stars in BM Cas had intermediate initial masses. Some of the photometric characteristics of the primary are indicative of alpha Cyg-type variability.