RZ Pyxidis: an early-type marginal contact binary

Abstract

The first modern photometric and spectroscopic study of the early-type binary RZ Pyx is presented. The analysis suggests that the system is in a marginal contact configuration with components on the zero-age main sequence. The masses and radii of the two components are found to be (5.3±0.4) and (4.3±0.2) solar masses and (2.61±0.10) and (2.44±0.06) solar radii, respectively. The age estimate for the system is less than |$2\times{10}^{6}$| yr. The system may have evolved into contact within this period of time or have arrived on the main sequence in a contact configuration.