2009/11/24 by Jae Woo Lee, Jae-Hyuck Youn, Jae‐Hyuck Youn +10 · 23 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Binary star #Contact binary #Dynamo #Dynamo theory #Light curve #Magnetic field #Minimum mass #Orbital period #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Stars #Starspot #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-6256/139/3/898
published in The Astronomical Journal 139(3), 898-905 (Institute of Physics) · 25 pages, including 9 figures and 8 tables, accepted for publication in AJ
arxiv created 2009/11/24 · openalex publication_date 2010/02/01 · arxiv updated 2015/05/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
New CCD photometry over four successive years from 2005 is presented for the eclipsing binary GW Cep, together with reasonable explanations for the light and period variations. All historical light curves, obtained over a 30 yr interval, display striking light changes, and are best modeled by the simultaneous existence of a cool spot and a hot spot on the more massive cool component star. The facts that the system is magnetically active and that the hot spot has consistently existed on the inner hemisphere of the star indicate that the two spots are formed by (1) magnetic dynamo-related activity on the cool star and (2) mass transfer from the primary to the secondary component. Based on 38 light-curve timings from the Wilson–Devinney code and all other minimum epochs, a period study of GW Cep reveals that the orbital period has experienced a sinusoidal variation with a period and semi-amplitude of 32.6 yr and 0.009 days, respectively. In principle, these may be produced either by a light-travel-time effect due to a third body or by an active magnetic cycle of at least one component star. Because we failed to find any connection between luminosity variability and the period change, that change most likely arises from the existence of an unseen third companion star with a minimum mass of 0.22 M ☉ gravitationally bound to the eclipsing pair.