Photometric and Spectroscopic Study of Two Low Mass Ratio Contact Binary Systems: CRTS J225828.7-121122 and CRTSJ030053.5+230139

Abstract

The study reports photometric and spectroscopic observations of two recently recognized contact binary systems. Both systems show total eclipses and analysis of the light curves indicates both have very low mass ratios of less than 0.3. We derive absolute parameters from color and distance based calibrations and show that, although both have low mass ratios, they are likely to be in a stable orbit and unlikely to merge. In other respects, both systems have characteristics similar to other contact binaries with the secondary larger and brighter than their main sequence counterparts and we also find that the secondary is considerably denser than the primary in both systems.