Active Longitudes and Flip-Flops in Binary Stars

In many active stars the spots concentrate on two permanent active longitudes which are 180 degrees apart. In some of these stars the dominant part of the spot activity changes the longitude every few years. This so-called flip-flop phenomenon was first reported in the early 1990's in the single, late type giant FK Com. Since then flip-flops have been reported also on binary stars, young solar type stars and the Sun itself. Even though this phenomenon has been detected on many different kinds of active stars, still less than ten stars are known to exhibit this effect. Therefore no statistically significant correlation between the stellar parameters and the flip-flop phenomenon can be carried out. Here we present results from investigation where we have studied the long-term photometry of several magnetically active RS CVn binaries to see whether or not they show permanent active longitudes and the flip-flop phenomenon. We find that it is very common for the active regions to occur on permanent active longitudes, and some of these stars also show clear flip-flop phenomenon.