A comprehensive study of an oscillating eclipsing Algol: Y Camelopardalis

Abstract

Abstract Y Camelopardalis (Y Cam) is classified as one of the oscillating eclipsing Algol (oEA) systems, which feature a $\delta$ Scuti-type pulsating component alongside mass transfer phenomena. oEA systems are invaluable for probing the evolutionary processes and internal structures of binary components, offering insights through their binary variations and oscillations. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of Y Cam utilizing high-quality photometric TESS data and high-resolution ELODIE spectra. Through our analysis, we examined the radial velocity variation, performed binary modeling, and calculated the effective temperature values of binary components. The fundamental stellar parameters, such as mass and radius, were determined with an accuracy of $\sim$2%–6%. Furthermore, we examined the orbital period variation to assess the amount of mass transfer using the available minima times of the system and three new minima times obtained from TESS light curves. Analyzing the pulsation structure of the system with the TESS data revealed the dominant pulsation period and amplitude of the pulsating component to be 0.066 d and 4.65 mmag, respectively. Notably, we observed frequency modulations with the orbital period’s frequency, along with variations in the amplitude of the highest amplitude frequency across different orbital phases. Remarkably, the amplitude reaches its peak at phases 0.5 and 1. These findings indicate a candidate for a tidally tilted pulsator. Consequently, we investigated the evolutionary status of the binary components using MESA binary evolution models, determining the age of the system to be 3.28 ± 0.09 Gyr.