Confirmation of eclipses in KPD 0422+5421, a binary containing a white dwarf and a subdwarf B star

Abstract

We report additional photometric CCD observations of KPD 0422+5421, a binary with an orbital period of 2.16 hours which contains a subdwarf B star (sdB) and a white dwarf. There are two main results of this work. First, the light curve of KPD 0422+5421 contains two distinct periodic signals, the 2.16 hour ellipsoidal modulation discovered by Koen, Orosz, & Wade (1998) and an additional modulation at 7.8 hours. This 7.8 hour modulation is clearly not sinusoidal: the rise time is about 0.25 in phase, whereas the decay time is 0.75 in phase. Its amplitude is roughly half of the amplitude of the ellipsoidal modulation. Second, after the 7.8 hour modulation is removed, the light curve folded on the orbital period clearly shows the signature of the transit of the white dwarf across the face of the sdB star and the signature of the occultation of the white dwarf by the sdB star. We used the Wilson-Devinney code to model the light curve to obtain the inclination, the mass ratio, and the Omega potentials, and a Monte Carlo code to compute confidence limits on interesting system parameters. We find component masses of M_sdB = 0.36 +/- 0.16 solar masses and M_WD = 0.47 +/- 0.16 solar masses (M_total = 0.86 +/- 0.35 solar masses, 68 per cent confidence limits). If we impose an additional constraint and require the computed mass and radius of the white dwarf to be consistent with a theoretical mass-radius relation, we find M_sdB = 0.511 +0.047 -0.050 solar masses and M_WD = 0.526 +0.033 -0.030 solar masses (68 per cent confidence limits). In this case the total mass of the system is less than 1.4 solar masses at the 99.99 per cent confidence level. We briefly discuss possible interpretations of the 7.8 hour modulation and the importance of KPD 0422+5421 as a member of a rare class of evolved binaries.