Orbital period variability of U CrB - a new approach
Abstract
The study of the orbital period variability of the Algol-type binary system U Coronae Borealis is resumed. The present, more nuanced, approach takes into account both the heteroskedastic character of the available timing data and the short and long timescales involved. According to our results, the long timescale variability component is about 90 yr. The short timescale component consists in a 43.57 yr light travel time effect (LTTE), and another quasiperiodic component which may be formally decomposed in two periodic harmonic components with 9.03 and 10.80 yr periodicities, respectively. The LTTE component may be caused by the presence of a 0.83 MSun companion, if we assume the coplanarity of its orbit and that of the eclipsing binary. This result is in excellent agreement with that of Heintze (1990), concerning the white dwarf nature of the third body in the system with a mass of 0.8 MSun. The quasiperiodic components may be related to the cyclic magnetic activity of the late spectral type companion of U CrB and, maybe, to the mass transfer occurring in the system.
- Publication:
-
7th International Conference in Astronomy
- Pub Date:
- July 2023
- Bibcode:
- 2023aasp.confE...8P