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DE CVn: A Bright, Eclipsing Red Dwarf – White Dwarf Binary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2007

E. J. M. van den Besselaar
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands email: besselaar@astro.ru.nl; lmr@astro.ru.nl; nelemans@astro.ru.nl; pgroot@astro.ru.nl
R. Greimel
Affiliation:
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Apartado de correos 321, E-38700 Santa Cruz de la Palma, Spain email: greimel@ing.iac.es
L. Morales-Rueda
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands email: besselaar@astro.ru.nl; lmr@astro.ru.nl; nelemans@astro.ru.nl; pgroot@astro.ru.nl
G. Nelemans
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands email: besselaar@astro.ru.nl; lmr@astro.ru.nl; nelemans@astro.ru.nl; pgroot@astro.ru.nl
J. R. Thorstensen
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, 6127 Wilder Laboratory Hanover, NH 03755, USA email: thorsten@partita.dartmouth.edu
T. R. Marsh
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK email: t.r.marsh@warwick.ac.uk
V. S. Dhillon
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK email: vik.dhillon@sheffield.ac.uk
R. M. Robb
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, Canada email: robb@uvic.ca; cosmos@uvvm.uvic.ca
D. D. Balam
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, Canada email: robb@uvic.ca; cosmos@uvvm.uvic.ca
E. W. Guenther
Affiliation:
Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, D-07778 Tautenburg, Germany email: guenther@tls-tautenburg.de
J. Kemp
Affiliation:
Joint Astronomy Centre 660 N. A'ohoku Place University Park Hilo, Hawaii 96720, USA email: j.kemp@jach.hawaii.edu
T. Augusteijn
Affiliation:
Nordic Optical Telescope, Apartado 474, E-38700 Santa Cruz de La Palma, Spain email: tau@not.iac.es
P. J. Groot
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands email: besselaar@astro.ru.nl; lmr@astro.ru.nl; nelemans@astro.ru.nl; pgroot@astro.ru.nl
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Abstract

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DE CVn is a relatively unstudied eclipsing binary where one of the components is an M dwarf and the other is a white dwarf. Its brightness makes it an ideal system for a detailed study in the context of common-envelope evolution of a detached white dwarf – red dwarf binary with a relatively short orbital period (∼8.7 hours). We present a detailed study of the basic parameters (e.g. orbital period, components' masses and spectral types) for this system from photometric and spectroscopic studies. The eclipses observed during several photometric observing runs were used to derive the ephemeris. We have used spectroscopic data to derive the radial velocity variations of the emission lines and these are used to determine the components' masses and the orbital separation. The secondary component in DE CVn is an M3 main-sequence star and the primary star, which only contributes to the blue continuum, is a cool white dwarf with a temperature of ∼8000 K. From the photometry and spectroscopy together, we have set a limit on the binary inclination. This system is a post-common-envelope system where the progenitor of the present day white dwarf was a low-mass star (M≤2M). The time before DE CVn becomes a semi-detached system is longer than the Hubble time.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

Pickles, A.J. 1998, PASP, 110, 863 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robb, R.M. & Greimel, R. 1997, Informational Bulletin on Variable Stars, 4486, 1 Google Scholar
Tas, G., Sipahi, E., Dal, H.A. et al. , 2004, Information Bulletin on Variable Stars, 5548, 1 Google Scholar
Voges, W., Aschenback, B., Boller, T. et al. 1999, A&A, 349, 389 Google Scholar
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