Astronomers detect new eclipsing post-common-envelope binary

Tomasz Nowakowski is a member of the physics.org community.

TIC 60040774 is a pair of systems that have been observed by Astronomers. The results of the campaign show that the system is an eclipse post common-envelope. The study appeared on arXiv.org.

A common envelope is gas that has a pair of stars. If the more massive star leaves the main sequence and the initial conditions are unstable, the system may enter theCE phase.

There is a large population of close, but detached white-dwarf/main-sequence binaries produced by theCE evolution. More than a quarter of WDMS are close enough that they must be the so-called post-common-envelope binaries. The formation and evolution of close compact stars could be better understood with studies of PCEBs.

TIC 60040774, one of the close binaries with a low-mass secondary star, is located some 437 light years away. It could be a PCEB.

We presented the discovery and characterization of a bright new PCEB. The system, TIC 60040774, is a high proper- motion object that lies close to theWD sequence in the color-magnitude diagram.

The team analyzed the light curve from the TESS, multi-band photometry, and the Southern African Large Telescope. There is a young white dwarf and an M dwarf.

The white dwarf in TIC 60040774 has a mass of less than one solar mass and an effective temperature of 14,050 K.

When compared to other known PCEBs, the system was estimated to take 9.71 hours to complete. The researchers assumed that the common-envelope stage took place some 243 million years ago.

The astronomer concluded that TIC 60040774 most likely began from a late B primary star with a mass of around 2.5 solar mass and an initial separation of around 2.4AU. They said that more precise high-cadence photometry is needed in order to understand the history and nature of this system.

More information: R. Priyatikanto et al, Characterisation of the eclipsing post-common-envelope binary TIC 60040774. arXiv:2208.02986v1 [astro-ph.SR], arxiv.org/abs/2208.02986

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