Related papers: KOI-3278: A Self-Lensing Binary Star System
Observations of accretion disks around young brown dwarfs have led to the speculation that they may form planetary systems similar to normal stars. While there have been several detections of planetary-mass objects around brown dwarfs…
The white dwarf mass distribution has been studied primarily at two extremes: objects that presumably evolved as single stars and members of close binaries that likely underwent substantial interaction. This work considers the intermediate…
White dwarfs represent the last stage of evolution of stars with mass less than about eight times that of the Sun and, like other stars, are often found in binaries. If the orbital period of the binary is short enough, energy losses from…
Many astronomers have speculated that the solar system contains undiscovered massive planets or a distant stellar companion. The acceleration of the solar system barycenter can constrain the mass and position of the putative companion. In…
Lensing of one member of a binary by its companion is studied for several classes of binaries. For binaries in which at least one member is an ordinary (non-compact) star, the optical depths to lensing is extremely low, $\tau\lsim…
We consider the gravitational magnification of light for binary systems containing two compact objects: white dwarfs, a white dwarf and a neutron star or a white dwarf and a black hole. Light curves of the flares of the white dwarf caused…
We comment on a recent study reporting evidence for the general relativistic Lense-Thirring secular precession of the inclination $I$ of the orbital plane to the plane of the sky of the tight binary system PSR J1141-6545 made of a white…
Gravitationally bound three-body systems have been studied for hundreds of years and are common in our Galaxy. They show complex orbital interactions, which can constrain the compositions, masses, and interior structures of the bodies and…
We present photodynamical models of four eclipsing binary systems that are members of higher-order multiple systems. We provide some radial velocities measurements and use recent TESS data for three of the systems. KIC 7668648 consists of…
Stellar multiplicity is believed to influence planetary formation and evolution, although the precise nature and extent of this role remain ambiguous. We present a study aimed at testing the role of stellar multiplicity in the formation…
Recently, the Kepler Space Telescope has detected several planets in orbit around a close binary star system. These so-called circumbinary planets will experience non-trivial spatial and temporal distributions of radiative flux on their…
A White Dwarf (WD) star and a main-sequence companion may interact through their different stellar evolution stages. This sort of binary population has historically helped us improve our understanding of binary formation and evolution…
We present an analysis of the binary and physical parameters of a unique pulsating white dwarf with a main-sequence companion, SDSS J1136+0409, observed for more than 77 d during the first pointing of the extended Kepler mission: K2…
With 16-month Kepler data, 14 long-period (40 d - 265 d) eclipsing binaries on highly eccentric orbits (minimum e between 0.5 and 0.85) are recognized from their closely separated primary and secondary eclipses (\Delta t_I,II = 3 d - 10 d).…
Most Sun-like stars in the Galaxy reside in gravitationally-bound pairs of stars called "binary stars". While long anticipated, the existence of a "circumbinary planet" orbiting such a pair of normal stars was not definitively established…
The unparalleled photometric data obtained by NASA's Kepler space telescope led to an improved understanding of red giant stars and binary stars. Seismology allows us to constrain the properties of red giants. In addition to eclipsing…
If the theoretical relationship between white dwarf mass and orbital period for wide-orbit binary radio pulsars is assumed to be correct, then the neutron star mass of PSR J2019+2425 is shown to be ~1.20 M_sun. Hence the mass of the neutron…
Tens of thousands of rotation periods have been measured in the Kepler fields, including a substantial fraction of rapid rotators. We use Gaia parallaxes to distinguish photometric binaries (PBs) from single stars on the unevolved lower…
Analyzing the available photometry from the Kepler satellite and other databases, we performed detailed light curve modeling of 10 eclipsing binary systems that were found to exhibit a periodic modulation of their orbital periods. All of…
The presence of a planetary system can shield a planetesimal disk from the secular gravitational perturbations due to distant outer massive objects (planets or stellar companions). As the host star evolves off the main sequence to become a…