Toward Solving the Mysteries of the Exotic Eclipsing Binary є Aurigae: Two Thousand years of Observations and Future Possibilities

Abstract

AbstractThe long period (P = 27.1 yr) eclipsing binary є Aurigae (F0 Ia + disk?) is truly an exotic star. It has a deep eclipse that lasts for nearly two years. This eclipse arises as a huge, cool, flattened disk transits the F-supergiant star. Modeling of the eclipse observations shows that the disk has a radius as large as ∼ 9 AU. Infrared observations indicate that the disk is cool with temperatures between 450 − 1000 K. Yet there is evidence of significant FUV emission also originating from the disk.At present, our knowledge of the mass and luminosity of the binary is still too uncertain to distinguish between two competing models of the system. The high mass model assumes that the F0 supergiant is a normal Pop. I star with a mass appropriate for its spectral type of M ∽ 15 M⊙. It is accompanied by a flattened disk companion with a slightly smaller mass. In this model the disk object is a young proto-stellar or protoplanetary disk. In the low mass model, the F0I star is assumed to be a bloated, old, solar mass post-AGB star. In this case the secondary object is an accretion disk with a mass of 4-5 M⊙. This disk is a remnant of postmain sequence mass transfer that occurred within the last few thousand years. In both models there are still problems explaining the object (or objects) at the center of the disk. Candidates include a pre-main sequence object, a black hole, or a close binary.In this paper we review the properties of ϵ Aurigae and discuss the advances in our understanding of this enigmatic star from observations made since its last eclipse in 1982-1984. With new technologies and advanced instrumentation it is possible that the physical properties of this puzzling binary star will be found during the next decade. Once found, then ϵ Aurigae and its eclipses can be used as a laboratory for exploring (and testing) current astrophysical concepts and theories that include rapid stages of stellar evolution, binary star evolution, and the structure and dynamics of large disks.