More than two hundred and fifty thousand spectroscopic binary or variable star candidates discovered by LAMOST

Abstract

About 786.4 thousand stars were observed by LAMOST twice or more during the first stage of its spectroscopic survey. The radial velocity differences for about 256 thousand targets are larger than 10 km s−1 and they are possible spectroscopic binary or variable candidates (SBVCs). It is shown that most SBVCs are slightly metal poorer than the Sun. There are two peaks in the temperature distribution of SBVCs around 5760 K and 4870 K, while there are three peaks in the distribution of the gravitational acceleration at 2.461, 4.171 and 4.621 cm s−2. The locations of SBVCs on the [Fe/H]-T, [Fe/H]-log g, log g-T and H-R diagrams are investigated. It is found that the detected SBVCs could be classified into four groups. The first group has higher log g ∼4.621 and lower T ∼ 4870 K which are mainly cool red dwarf binaries. The second group of SBVCs has log g around 4.171 cm s−2 that includes binaries and pulsating stars such as δ Sct and γ Dor variables. The gravitational accelerations of the third group of SBVCs are higher and some of them are below the zero-age main sequence. They may be contact binaries in which the primary components are losing energy to the secondaries in the common envelopes and are at a special stellar evolutionary stage. The last group is composed of giants or supergiants with log g around 2.461 cm s−2 that may be evolved pulsating stars. One target (C134624.29+333921.2) is confirmed as an eclipsing binary with a period of 0.65 days. A preliminary analysis suggests that it is a detached binary with a mass ratio of 0.46. The primary fills its critical Roche lobe by about 89%, indicating that mass transfer will occur between the two components.