Low-mass eclipsing binaries in the WFCAM Transit Survey

Abstract

AbstractThe characterization of short-period detached low-mass binaries, by the determination of their physical and orbital parameters, reveal the most precise basic parameters of low-mass stars. Particularly, when photometric and spectroscopic data of eclipsing binaries (EBs) are combined. Recently, 16 new low-mass EBs were discovered by the WFCAM Transit Survey (WTS), however, only three of them were fully characterized. Therefore, new spectroscopic data were already acquired with the objective to characterize five new detached low-mass EBs discovered in the WTS, with short periods between 0.59 and 1.72 days. A preliminary analysis of the radial velocity and light curves was performed, where we have derived orbital separations of 2.88 to 6.69 R⊙, and considering both components, we have found stellar radii ranging from 0.40 to 0.80 R⊙, and masses between 0.24 and 0.71 M⊙. In addition to the determination of the orbital parameters of these systems, the relation between mass, radius and orbital period of these objects can be investigated in order to study the mass-radius relationship and the radius anomaly in the low main-sequence.