Studying populations of eclipsing binaries using large scale multi-epoch photometric surveys
Abstract
Large scale multi-epoch photometric surveys provide unique opportunities to study populations of binary stars through the study of eclipsing binaries, provided the basic properties of binary systems can be derived from their light curves without the need to fully model the binary system. Those systems can then be classified into various types from, for example, close to wide systems, from circular to highly elliptical systems, or from systems with similar components to highly asymmetric systems. The challenge is to extract physically relevant information from the light curve geometry.In this contribution, we present the study of eclipsing binaries in the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC) from the OGLE-III survey. The study is based on the analysis of the geometry of their light curves parameterized using a two-Gaussian model. We show what physical parameters could be extracted from such an analysis, and the results for the LMC eclipsing binaries. The method is very well adapted to process large-scale surveys containing millions of eclipsing binaries, such as is expected from the current Gaia mission or the future LSST survey.
- Publication:
-
IAU General Assembly
- Pub Date:
- August 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015IAUGA..2257210M