This paper presents a detailed analysis of the light and radial velocity curves of the semi-detached eclipsing binary system OGLE-LMC-ECL-09937. The system is composed of a hot, massive and luminous primary star of a late-O spectral type, and a more evolved, but less massive and luminous secondary, implying an Algol-type system that underwent a mass transfer episode. We derive masses of 21.04 +/- 0.34 M_Sun and 7.61 +/- 0.09 M_Sun and radii of 9.93 +/- 0.06 R_Sun and 9.18 +/- 0.04 R_Sun, for the primary and the secondary component, respectively, which make it the most massive known Algol-type system with masses and radii of the components measured with <2% accuracy. Consequently, the parameters of OGLE-LMC-ECL-09937 provide an important contribution to the sparsely populated high-mass end of the stellar mass distribution, and an interesting object for stellar evolution studies, being a possible progenitor of a binary system composed of two neutron stars.
@article{arxiv.1801.05845,
title = {OGLE-LMC-ECL-09937: The Most Massive Algol-Type Binary System With A Mass Measurement Accurate to 2%},
author = {D. M. Skowron and M. Kourniotis and J. L. Prieto and N. Castro and A. Z. Bonanos and D. K. Pienkowski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.05845},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
16 pages, 7 figures, 4 Tables, published in Acta Astronomica