Related papers: Hunting for binary Cepheids using lucky imaging te…
The majority of classical Cepheids are binary stars, yet the contribution of companions' light to the total brightness of the system has been assumed negligible and lacked a thorough, quantitative evaluation. We present an extensive study…
Moderately close binaries are a special class of targets for planet searches. From a theoretical standpoint, their hospitality to giant planets is uncertain and debated. From an observational standpoint, many of these systems present…
Masses determined from classical Cepheids in binary systems are a primary test of both pulsation and evolutionary calculations. The first step is to determine the orbit from ground-based radial velocities. Complementary satellite data from…
We present results of the CFHT adaptive optics search for companions of a homogeneous group of contact binary stars, as a contribution to our attempts to prove a hypothesis that these binaries require a third star to become so close as…
The Kepler mission has provided high quality light curves for more than 2000 eclipsing binaries. Tertiary companions to these binaries can be detected if they transit one or both stars in the binary or if they perturb the binary enough to…
We give an update on our long-term program of Galactic Cepheids started in 2012, whose goal is to measure the visual orbits of Cepheid companions. Using the VLTI/PIONIER and CHARA/MIRC instruments, we have now detected several com- panions,…
Many problems in contemporary astrophysics---from understanding the formation of black holes to untangling the chemical evolution of galaxies---rely on knowledge about binary stars. This, in turn, depends on discovery and characterization…
Cepheids are key distance indicators and benchmarks for stellar evolution, yet most of them are members of binary or multiple systems. While spectroscopic surveys and Gaia proper-motion anomalies reveal a high binary fraction, the…
State-of-the art photometric measurements of extragalactic Cepheids account for the mean additional light due to chance superposition of Cepheids on crowded backgrounds through the use of artificial star measurements. However, light from…
(abridged) Context. Wide binaries are a potential pathway for the formation of hot Jupiters. The binary fraction among host stars is an important discriminator between competing formation theories, but has not been well characterised.…
Determining the expansion of the universe, i.e. the Hubble constant (H0) to better than 2% is required in order to understand the nature of dark energy. However, the two most accurate methods to do it, the cosmic microwave background and…
We present the analysis of photometric and spectroscopic data of two bright Galactic Cepheids, X Puppis and XX Sagittarii. Based on the available data in the literature as well as own observations spanning 75 years, we conclude that both…
We have conducted an imaging survey with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera~3 (WFC3) of 70 Galactic Cepheids, typically within 1~kpc, with the aim of finding resolved physical companions. The WFC3 field typically covers the 0.1 pc…
A large number of high-dispersion spectra of classical Cepheids were obtained in the region of the CaII H+K spectral lines. The analysis of these spectra allowed us to detect the presence of a strong Balmer line, H$\epsilon$, for several…
We discuss a possible method for detection of dark companions of galactic objects of stellar mass. Such binary systems are likely to occur in the galactic disk and possibly also in the halo. The high incidence of binary and…
We develop Bayesian statistical methods for discovering and assigning probabilities to non-random (e.g., physical) stellar companions. These companions are either presently bound or were previously bound. The probabilities depend on…
In this paper, we determine the detectability of eclipsing binary star companions from eclipse timing variations using the Kepler mission dataset. Extensive and precise stellar time-series photometry from space-based missions enable…
This paper is devoted to exploring how we can discover and study nearby (< 1-2 kpc) planetary and binary systems by observing their action as gravitational lenses. Lensing can extend the realm of nearby binaries and planets that can be…
The presence of stellar companions around planet hosting stars influences the architecture of their planetary systems. To find and characterise these companions and determine their orbits is thus an important consideration to understand…
The presence of a body in an orbit around a close eclipsing binary star manifests itself through the light time effect influencing the observed times of eclipses as the close binary and the circumbinary companion both move around the common…