Abstract
Eclipsing binary stars have a rich history of contributing to the field of stellar astrophysics. Most of the available information on the fundamental properties of stars has come from the analysis of observations of binaries. The availability of powerful computers and sophisticated codes that apply physical models has resulted in determinations of masses and radii of sufficient accuracy to provide critical tests of theories of stellar structure and evolution. Despite their sophistication, these codes still require the guiding hand of trained scientists to extract reliable information. The computer code will produce results, but it is still imperative for the analyst to ensure that those results make astrophysical sense, and to ascertain their reliability. Care must be taken to ensure that we are asking the codes for parameters for which there is information in the data. The analysis of synthetic observations with simulated observational errors of typical size can provide valuable insight to the analysis process because the parameters used to generate the observations are known. Such observations are herein analyzed to guide the process of determining mass ratios and spot parameters from eclipsing binary light curves. The goal of this paper is to illustrate some of the subtleties that need to be recognized and treated properly when analyzing binary star data.
Highlights
Galaxies 2022, 10, 8. https://doi.org/Binary systems play an important role in our understanding of the nature of astronomical objects
Anyone who has attempted to model light curve asymmetries with spots has discovered the inherent difficulties in the process
As the mass ratio decreases the recovered amount of third light decreases until it becomes so small as to be immeasurable, even trending to unphysical negative values. Note that this is consistent with the mass ratio value recovered when third light is set to zero and not adjusted. These results suggest caution when determining photometric mass ratios where there is an unknown amount of third light, even in the best case scenario of having nearly central eclipses
Summary
Binary (and higher multiple) systems play an important role in our understanding of the nature of astronomical objects. A bad example is the analysis of the light curve of an overcontact binary with partial eclipses These binaries have short orbital periods and it is easy to churn out papers on them, but for the most part, they contribute very little to our understanding of stars. Photometric mass ratios have been discussed and estimated for various types of eclipsing binaries for decades but there seems to be lingering confusion about why and when they can be accurately estimated Spot parameters, namely their locations on the surface of a star, their size and their temperature, have a long history of application in light curve analyses but have received relatively little attention in terms of how accurately they can be determined. Anyone who has attempted to model light curve asymmetries with spots has discovered the inherent difficulties in the process
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