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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2016
I examine the possibility that large, cool prominences can be formed in close binary systems, when coronal structures grow beyond the point where centrifugal force balances gravitational attraction. X-ray light curves of the eclipsing binary XY UMa indicate that an extended corona is probably present and this is likely to reach heights > 1.5 R⊙, where centrifugal compression may render plasma in the coronal loop apexes unstable to thermal perturbations. Cool condensations could form, explaining features such as the dips in the X-ray light curves of V471 Tau, and the circumstellar material deduced to be present in several close binary systems.