Mass Transfer as an Explanation for the Lifetime Travel Time Discrepancy in IT Librae

Abstract

Abstract The eclipsing binary IT Librae is an unusual system of two B-type stars that is situated about 1 kpc above the Galactic plane. The binary was probably ejected from its birthplace in the disk, but the implied time of flight to its current location exceeds the evolutionary lifetime of the primary star. Here we present a study of new high-dispersion spectroscopy and an exquisite light curve from the Kepler K2 mission in order to determine the system properties and resolve the timescale discrepancy. We derive a revised spectroscopic orbit from radial-velocity measurements and determine the component effective temperatures through comparison of reconstructed and model spectra (T 1 = 23.8 ± 1.8 kK, T 2 = 13.7 ± 2.5 kK). We use the Eclipsing Light Curve code to model the K2 light curve, and from the inclination of the fit we derive the component masses (M 1 = 9.6 ± 0.6 M ⊙, M 2 = 4.2 ± 0.2 M ⊙) and mean radii (R 1 = 6.06 ± 0.16 R ⊙, R 2 = 5.38 ± 0.14 R ⊙). The secondary star is overluminous for its mass and appears to fill its Roche lobe. This indicates that IT Librae is a post-mass-transfer system in which the current secondary was the mass donor star. The current primary star was rejuvenated by mass accretion, and its evolutionary age corresponds to the time since the mass transfer stage. Consequently, the true age of the binary is larger than the ejection time of flight, thus resolving the timescale discrepancy.