Rotational Properties and Synchronization in Early-Type Close Binaries

Abstract

We have rediscussed the synchronism between rotation and revolution in close binaries by an inspection of the published projected rotational velocities V sin i of about 250 early-type (from 0 to F5) eclipsing and double-lined spectroscopic binaries. Corrections of the V sin i - values (which are mainly taken from the catalog of Uesugi and Fukuda, 1982) for the aspect effect is straightforward for the eclipsing binaries with analyzed light-curves; in the other cases we have estimated the value of the orbital inclination angle i from the primary's minimum mass M1 sin3 i on the assumption that its mass follows Straižys and Kuriliené's (1981) mass-spectrum relations for different luminosity classes. For the components of non-eclipsing binaries, for which the absolute radii are not directly known, we have adopted values of the absolute radii in accordance with Straižys and Kuriliené's (1981) radius-spectrum relations for different luminosity classes. By using our estimates of the radii, for each component we have evaluated the synchronized velocity Vk (corresponding to the mean orbital angular velocity) and the pseudosynchronized velocity Ve, which corresponds to a synchronization with the instantaneous orbital angular velocity at periastron of an eccentric orbit; in close binaries with appreciably eccentric orbits synchronization is attained with V/Vk>1 and it is probably quickly reached at periastron (Hut 1981).