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UU CNC and VZ PSC, contact systems before the common envelope phase?

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Abstract

We have analyzed the existing photoelectric light curves of twoK-type binary systems: UU Cnc, with a period of about 100 days, and VZ Psc, with a period of about 6 hours. Both show a large overcontact (38% for UU Cnc, 56% for VZ Psc) and a large temperature difference between components (ΔT≈1500 K and 1100 K, respectively). In the case of VZ Psc, the variability is due only to the non-spherical shape, i.e., no eclipse occurs, but the determination of the photometric solution is made possible by the existence of a spectroscopic mass ratio. We find that UU Cnc is now probably undergoing Case C mass transfer in a dynamical time-scale, with the mass ratio reversal having already occurred; the system is in contact, and is likely to evolve to a 100% filling factor, that is the so-called pre-common envelope phase, a unique case never observed before. The situation for VZ Psc is more uncertain, but a similar, although not identical, possibility exists.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche dell'Università, Napoli, Italy

    F. Barone, L. Milano & G. Russo

  2. Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility, European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, F.R.G.

    G. Russo

  3. Max-Planck Institut für Astrophysik, Garching bei München, F.R.G.

    M. J. Sarna

Authors
  1. F. Barone
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  2. L. Milano
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  3. G. Russo
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  4. M. J. Sarna
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Associated with the Istituto Nazionale Fisica Nucleare, Italy.

On leave from N. Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.

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Barone, F., Milano, L., Russo, G. et al. UU CNC and VZ PSC, contact systems before the common envelope phase?. Astrophys Space Sci 159, 67–83 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00640488

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00640488

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