Investigation of contact binaries in the field of NGC 6811

Abstract

Abstract Contact binary systems are very important for studying physical processes such as strong interactions between stars, mass transfer, and stellar merger. Further, the members of an open cluster have the same age, metal abundance, and interstellar extinction conditions. Therefore, we can conduct a comparative study on the different binary systems of the same open cluster. NGC 6811 is an observed intermediate-aged, slightly reddened open cluster in the Kepler field of view; we conducted a corresponding study on the contact binary systems in this cluster. We analyzed six suspected targets and found a total of five EW-type binary systems within a field of 40′ radius of the NGC 6811 cluster center. These targets were analyzed base on the Kepler data, and the corresponding system parameters were obtained by using the latest version of the Wilson–Devinney code. Further, we also used Gaia DR2 data and the cluster distance data to estimate the absolute parameters of these targets to determine whether they are members of the cluster. Finally, we determined that two targets (KIC 9470175 and KIC 9533706) are most likely cluster members; KIC 9957411 and KIC 9776718 are definitely not members of the cluster, just background stars.