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EL CVn-type binaries - discovery of 17 helium white dwarf precursors in bright eclipsing binary star systems
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(2014) EL CVn-type binaries - discovery of 17 helium white dwarf precursors in bright eclipsing binary star systems. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 437 (Number 2). pp. 1681-1697. doi:10.1093/mnras/stt2007 ISSN 0035-8711.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt2007
Abstract
The star 1SWASP J024743.37−251549.2 was recently discovered to be a binary star in which an A-type dwarf star eclipses the remnant of a disrupted red giant star (WASP 0247−25 B). The remnant is in a rarely observed state evolving to higher effective temperatures at nearly constant luminosity prior to becoming a very low mass white dwarf composed almost entirely of helium, i.e. it is a pre-helium white dwarf (pre-He-WD). We have used the photometric database from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) to find 17 eclipsing binary stars with orbital periods P = 0.7–2.2 d with similar light curves to 1SWASP J024743.37−251549.2. The only star in this group previously identified as a variable star is the brightest one, EL CVn, which we adopt as the prototype for this class of eclipsing binary star. The characteristic light curves of EL CVn-type stars show a total eclipse by an A-type dwarf star of a smaller, hotter star and a secondary eclipse of comparable depth to the primary eclipse. We have used new spectroscopic observations for six of these systems to confirm that the companions to the A-type stars in these binaries have very low masses (≈0.2M⊙). This includes the companion to EL CVn which was not previously known to be a pre-He-WD. EL CVn-type binary star systems will enable us to study the formation of very low mass white dwarfs in great detail, particularly in those cases where the pre-He-WD star shows non-radial pulsations similar to those recently discovered in WASP0247−25 B.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | ||||
Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||
ISSN: | 0035-8711 | ||||
Official Date: | 2014 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 437 | ||||
Number: | Number 2 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 1681-1697 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stt2007 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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