Inverse Problem: Solution for Elements of the Eclipses

Abstract

In the preceding three chapters of this book an outline has been given of a mathematical theory of the light changes of eclipsing binary systems, which should permit us to evaluate the instantaneous light of the system at any moment of its orbital cycle—between minima as well as within eclipses—in terms of the geometrical as well as physical elements of the system. These elements are, however, not known to us a priori; in point of fact, it is the aim of the investigator to deduce them from the observed light changes. This constitutes, in fact, a problem inverse to that treated in the preceding two chapters, and one to which we wish to address ourselves in this chapter.