CoRoT is a pioneering space mission devoted to the analysis of stellar variability and the photometric detection of extrasolar planets. We present the list of planetary transit candidates detected in the first field observed by CoRoT, IRa01, the initial run toward the Galactic anticenter, which lasted for 60 days. We analysed 3898 sources in the coloured bands and 5974 in the monochromatic band. Instrumental noise and stellar variability were taken into account using detrending tools before applying various transit search algorithms.
We test the parallaxes reported in the Gaia first data release using the sample of eclipsing binaries with accurate, empirical distances from Stassun & Torres (2016, arXiv:1609.02579). We find an average offset of -0.25+/-0.05mas in the sense of the Gaia parallaxes being too small (i.e., the distances too long). The offset does not depend strongly on obvious parameters such as color or brightness. However, we find with high confidence that the offset may depend on ecliptic latitude: the mean offset is -0.38+/-0.06mas in the ecliptic north and -0.05+/-0.09mas in the ecliptic south. The ecliptic latitude dependence may also be represented by the linear relation, {Delta}{pi}~-0.22(+/-0.05)-0.003(+/-0.001)x{beta}mas ({beta} in degrees). Finally, there is a possible dependence of the parallax offset on distance, with the offset becoming negligible for {pi}<~1mas; we discuss whether this could be caused by a systematic error in the eclipsing binary distance scale, and reject this interpretation as unlikely.
All observations were conducted in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from an urban yard under moderate light pollution. 28cm Schmidt-Cassegrain, 2640mm focal length. German equatorial mount.
A new catalog of eclipsing binary stars with eccentric orbits is presented. The catalog lists the physical parameters (including apsidal motion parameters) of 124 eclipsing binaries with eccentric orbits. In addition, the catalog also contains a list of 150 candidate systems, about which fewer details are known at present.
A set of 442 eclipsing binaries was selected from the GCVS catalog (Kholopov et al., 2003) that had declination <0{deg}, minimum magnitude brighter than 13.0, and no published times of minima later than JD 2440000 available through the NASA ADS service. An automated web-based data gathering application was developed to retrieve and display data from the ASAS-3 database (Pojmanski, 2002, Cat. J/AcA/48/35>). A search radius of 45 arcsec was used when selecting candidate stars.
Eclipsing post-common-envelope binaries are highly important for resolving the poorly understood, very short-lived common-envelope phase of stellar evolution. Most hot subdwarfs (sdO/Bs) are the bare helium-burning cores of red giants that have lost almost all of their hydrogen envelope. This mass loss is often triggered by common-envelope interactions with close stellar or even substellar companions. Cool companions to hot subdwarf stars such as late-type stars and brown dwarfs are detectable from characteristic light-curve variations - reflection effects and often eclipses. In the recently published catalog of eclipsing binaries in the Galactic Bulge and in the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey, we discovered 125 new eclipsing systems showing a reflection effect seen by visual inspection of the light curves and using a machine-learning algorithm, in addition to the 36 systems previously discovered by the Optical Gravitational Lesing Experiment (OGLE) team. The Eclipsing Reflection Effect Binaries from Optical Surveys (EREBOS) project aims at analyzing all newly discovered eclipsing binaries of the HW Vir type (hot subdwarf + close, cool companion) based on a spectroscopic and photometric follow up to derive the mass distribution of the companions, constrain the fraction of substellar companions, and determine the minimum mass needed to strip off the red-giant envelope. To constrain the nature of the primary we derived the absolute magnitude and the reduced proper motion of all our targets with the help of the parallaxes and proper motions measured by the Gaia mission and compared those to the Gaia white-dwarf candidate catalog. It was possible to derive the nature of a subset of our targets, for which observed spectra are available, by measuring the atmospheric parameter of the primary, confirming that less than 10% of our systems are not sdO/Bs with cool companions but are white dwarfs or central stars of planetary nebula. This large sample of eclipsing hot subdwarfs with cool companions allowed us to derive a significant period distribution for hot subdwarfs with cool companions for the first time showing that the period distribution is much broader than previously thought and is ideally suited to finding the lowest-mass companions to hot subdwarf stars. The comparison with related binary populations shows that the period distribution of HW Vir systems is very similar to WD+dM systems and central stars of planetary nebula with cool companions. In the future, several new photometric surveys will be carried out, which will further increase the sample of this project, providing the potential to test many aspects of common-envelope theory and binary evolution.
We collect data on the masses, radii, etc., of three classes of close binary stars: low-temperature contact binaries (LTCBs), near-contact binaries (NCBs), and detached close binaries (DCBs). We restrict ourselves to systems in which (1) both components are, at least arguably, near the main sequence, (2) the periods are less than a day, and (3) there is both spectroscopic and photometric analysis leading to reasonably reliable data. We discuss the possible evolutionary connections between these three classes, emphasizing the roles played by mass loss and angular momentum loss in rapidly rotating cool stars. We describe a new mechanism, differential rotation as observed in the Sun, which can explain the remarkable efficiency of heat transport in the outer envelopes of contact binaries.
