BINSYN: A Publicly Available Program for Simulating Spectra and Light Curves of Binary Systems with or without Accretion Disks

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe BINSYN program suite, a collection of programs for analysis of binary star systems with or without an optically thick accretion disk, is available for download from a wiki. This article describes the package, including download instructions. BINSYN produces synthetic spectra of individual binary star components plus a synthetic spectrum of the system. If the system includes an accretion disk, BINSYN also produces a separate synthetic spectrum of the disk face and rim. A system routine convolves the synthetic spectra with filter profiles of several photometric standards to produce absolute synthetic photometry output. The package generates synthetic light curves and determines an optimized solution for system parameters. This article includes illustrative literature references that have used the suite, including mass transfer rates in several cataclysmic binary systems.