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Three Incomprehensible Binaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Peter P. Eggleton*
Affiliation:
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore CA94550, USA

Abstract

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I describe three eclipsing double-lined binaries whose fundamental data (spectra, masses etc.) are totally out of line with theoretical concepts. Accepting the data at face value, they seem to imply that (i) a massive star (about 10 – 30 M) in a moderately wide binary (P ≈ 50 – 250 d) can eject almost its entire envelope to infinity, without shrinking its period substantially, (b) some formerly triple systems can become binaries through the merger of two of the three components, and (c) a red giant can be stimulated to lose half its mass in a stellar wind before reaching its Roche lobe.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2002

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