A study of the distortion wave in the RS CVn eclipsing binary SV Camelopardalis

Abstract

The light outside the eclipses of the totally eclipsing RS CVn binary SV Camelopardalis (SV Cam) is Fourier analysed and the amplitudes of the distortion waves have been derived. The distribution of the percentage contributions of these amplitudes inV, B andU colours with respect to the luminosities of the binary components indicates that the hotter component is the source of the distortion waves. These distortion waves, attributed to star spots, are modelled according to Budding (1977) and spot parameters like longitude, latitude, temperature and size are obtained. From this study it is noticed that while symmetric waves with two minima could be fitted satisfactorily, asymmetric waves with more than two minima could not be fitted well. From the longitudes of the minima of the best fitted curves, migration periods of four spot groups are determined. Assuming synchronism between rotation and orbital periods, the rotation periods of the four spot groups are derived from their migration periods. The period of rotation of one of the spot groups having direct motion is found to be 0d.5934209 while the periods of the other three spot groups having retrograde motion are 0d.5926588, 0d.592607 and 0d.5924688. As the latitudes of these spots are known from modelling parameters, the latitude having a rotation period equal to that of the orbital period (co-rotating latitude) is found to be about 30°