Elsevier

New Astronomy

Volume 44, April 2016, Pages 29-34
New Astronomy

The highest rate orbital period increasing contact binary LP UMa revisited

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newast.2015.10.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • B, V, Rc and Ic light curves of LP UMa have been derived by the 1 m telescope.

  • Photometric analysis shows that LP UMa is an A-type shallow contact binary.

  • The highest rate of orbital period increase of LP UMa was confirmed.

  • LP UMa may be a triply system.

Abstract

Complete BV(RI)c photometry for the contact binary LP UMa was derived on 2015 February 23 using the 1.0 m telescope at Weihai Observatory of Shandong University. By compiling 66 newly determined times of light minimum with those published in the literature, we investigated the orbital period variation of this binary star. A possible cyclic variation, with a period of 14.84 years and an amplitude of 0.0031 days, was discovered to be superimposed on a long-term period increase (9.32 s century1). The highest rate of orbital period increase was confirmed, which can be explained by the mass transfer from the less massive component to the more massive one. The cyclic period oscillation was possibly caused by the light travel time effect due to the presence of a third body. The multiple light curves were simultaneously analysed using the W-D program. It was found that LP UMa has a mass ratio of q=0.331, a contact degree of f=7.9%, and the temperature difference between the two components was only about 90 K, which are quite different with the previous results. A hot spot on the primary component was employed to explain the asymmetric light curve of this binary.

Introduction

LP UMa (GSC 3822-1056) was first discovered to be variable by Martin (2000) and Bíró (2000) when observing the novalike variable DW UMa. At first, LP UMa was regarded as a δ Scuti variable by Martin (2000), based on single band photometry. Later in the same year, Bíró (2000) concluded that LP UMa is a β Lyr-type binary star by analysing VR bands photometric observations of 4 consecutive nights.

The first result of VRc photometry for LP UMa together with the light curve solution and the period analysis were presented by Csizmadia et al. (2003). Their light curve showed a positive type of O’Connell effect, which was explained by a dark spot on the secondary component. Their photometric solutions showed that LP UMa was a deep over-contact binary system with a high mass ratio of 0.886, and the temperature difference between the components was up to 1045 K. Vinod et al. (2014) derived some large different photometric results by using the same mass ratio with Csizmadia et al. (2003), such as a much lower fill-out factor (f=14%). However, no explanations were given by Vinod et al. (2014). Recently, Liao et al. (2015) reanalysed LP UMa using more smooth and continuous VRI bands light curves which were obtained on 2013 January 11. The photometric analysis by Liao et al. (2015) indicated that LP UMa is a deep, unusual over-contact binary system with a high mass ratio of 0.823. Different authors obtain different results, making LP UMa a very interesting target to be investigated.

In this paper, complete BV(RI)c light curves of LP UMa were presented and analyzed. At the same time, orbital period variation was also investigated by all available times of light minimum.

Section snippets

CCD photometric observations for LP UMa

Complete BV(RI)c photometric observations of LP UMa were carried out on 2015 February 23 using an Andor DZ936 CCD camera attached to the 1.0 m Cassegrain telescope (Hu et al. 2014) at Weihai Observatory of Shandong University. The Andor DZ936 CCD camera has 2048 × 2048 square pixels (13.5 × 13.5μm pixel1), resulting an effective field of view about 11.8′ × 11.8′. The filter system is a standard Johnson and Cousins filter system (B, V, Rc, and Ic). The exposure times for each image were 60s,

Orbital period analysis

Csizmadia et al. (2003) firstly investigated the orbital period of LP UMa using a total of 45 times of minimum and found an extremely high rate of period increase which was explained by light-time effect or mass transfer between the components. Recently, Vinod et al. (2014) found that the period has increased by 10.8 s century1 by using 118 timing of minimum over a span of 14 years. Liao et al. (2015) confirmed that the highest rate of long-term period increase by computing 130 times of light

Reanalyzing light curves

As shown in Fig. 2, the shape of light curves changed significantly among different epochs. The depths of the two minima became much smaller than previous observations, revealing that the effective temperatures of both components were becoming similar. We analyze the light curve with the assumption of the presence of cool/hot spot models due to the asymmetric light curve using the fourth version of the W-D program (Wilson, Devinney, 1971, Wilson, 1990, Wilson, 1994, Wilson, Van Hamme). In the

Results and discussions

Complete photometric data were obtained in the BV(RI)c bands on a single night. It shows that the light curves are asymmetric. Photometric solutions based on four-band CCD light curves have been derived with the Wilson–Devinney code. The results showed that LP UMa is an A-subtype contact binary system with a mass ratio of q = 0.331, and a contact degree of f=(ΩinΩ)/(ΩinΩout)=7.9%. The asymmetric light curve could be explained by the presence of a hot spot on the more massive component. As

Acknowledgments

This work is partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11203016, 11333002, U1431105), and by the Basic Research Program of Shandong University at Weihai (No. 2015ZQXM013), and by the Open Research Program of Key Laboratory for the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects (No. OP201303). We acknowledge with thanks the variable star observations from the AAVSO International Database contributed by observers worldwide and used in this study

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