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We are now going to look at another interesting binary called AR Mon. Go back into Binary Maker. Load in the following files: Run the light curves until you get the final screen with the light and radial velocity curves with the binary pictorial. There are two things to notice. First, one of the stars is deformed, it has a tear-drop shape to it. Second, the light curve is very different to our previous binary. When the stars are not eclipsing, the light curve is not constant but rather rounded in shape. The tear-drop shape is due to the larger star filling its Roche lobe. To see this, run Surface Outlines under the Run menu for this binary. Notice that the larger star has grown sufficiently to make contact with its Roche lobe and taken on the Roche lobe shape. Esc from this screen and go into Light Curves again. Decrease the inclination to 40 degrees and run light curves again. The light curves still show minima in addition to maxima! Question: At which binary configuration does the minima and maxima of the light curve correspond? Question: What is causing the changes in the light curve in this case? Question: What does this mean in terms of determining the binary inclination for low inclination systems? |