Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T07:42:16.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Two bodies with high eccentricity around the cataclysmic variable QS Vir

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2011

Leonardo A. Almeida
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais/MCT Avenida dos Astronautas 1758, São José dos Campos, SP, 12227-010, Brazil email: leonardo@das.inpe.br
Francisco Jablonski
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais/MCT Avenida dos Astronautas 1758, São José dos Campos, SP, 12227-010, Brazil email: leonardo@das.inpe.br
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

QS Vir is an eclipsing cataclysmic variable with 3.618 hrs orbital period. This system has the interesting characteristics that it does not show mass transfer between the components through the L1 Lagrangian point and shows a complex orbital period variation history. Qian et al. (2010) associated the orbital period variations to the presence of a giant planet in the system plus angular momentum loss via magnetic braking. Parsons et al. (2010) obtained new eclipse timings and observed that the orbital period variations associated to a hypothetical giant planet disagree with their measurements and concluded that the decrease in orbital period is part of a cyclic variation with period ~16 yrs. In this work, we present 28 new eclipse timings of QS Vir and suggest that the orbital period variations can be explained by a model with two circumbinary bodies. The best fitting gives the lower limit to the masses M1 sin(i) ~ 0.0086 M and M2 sin(i) ~ 0.054 M; orbital periods P1 ~ 14.4 yrs and P2 ~ 16.99 yrs, and eccentricities e1 ~ 0.62 and e2~0.92 for the two external bodies. Under the assumption of coplanarity among the two external bodies and the inner binary, we obtain a giant planet with ~0.009 M and a brown dwarf with ~ 0.056 M around the eclipsing binary QS Vir.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Applegate, J. H. 1992, ApJ, 385, 621CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brinkworth, C. S., et al. 2006, MNRAS, 365, 287BCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charbonneau, P. 1995, ApJS, 101, 309CCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin, J. B. 1952, ApJ, 116, 211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Donoghue, S. G., et al. 2003, MNRAS, 345, 506CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, S. G., et al. 2010, MNRAS, 407, 2362PCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qian, S.-B., et al. 2010, MNRAS, 401L, 34QCrossRefGoogle Scholar