Flux distribution in the Algol binary system RW Persei.
Abstract
The authors have obtained IUE low-dispersion spectra and optical ITS scans of the semidetached Algol-type binary system RW Per. They have determined the spectral type of the primary component to be B9.6e, with good accuracy. The spectral type of the cooler component has been determined with less accuracy as K2 III - IV. The system is heavily reddened, its color excess being E(B-V) = 0.40±0.05 mag. D. S. Hall reported a rapid secular decrease in the duration of the totality of the primary eclipse. The only plausible explanation seems to be that the hotter component is actually an optically thick accretion disk. The ultraviolet spectrum observed near mideclipse does not display the expected "W Serpentis-type" emission lines. In the optical region, the system is a Be star. The secondary is probably a star of very low mass. The exciting fact about RW Per is the possibility that we are really observing an optically thick accretion disk.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Pub Date:
- March 1987
- DOI:
- 10.1086/131972
- Bibcode:
- 1987PASP...99..159D
- Keywords:
-
- Eclipsing Binary Stars;
- Iue;
- Radiant Flux Density;
- Stellar Envelopes;
- Stellar Spectra;
- Ultraviolet Spectra;
- Balmer Series;
- H Alpha Line;
- Stellar Luminosity;
- Stellar Mass;
- Stellar Temperature;
- Astrophysics