Related papers: Weighing Melnick 34: the most massive binary syste…
We present a determination of precise fundamental physical parameters of twenty detached, double- lined, eclipsing binary stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) containing G- or early K-type giant stars. Eleven are new systems, the…
We present multi-epoch spectroscopic observations of the massive binary system WR21a, which include the January 2011 periastron passage. Our spectra reveal multiple SB2 lines and facilitate an accurate determination of the orbit and the…
The contact phase expected to precede the coalescence of two massive stars is poorly characterized due to the paucity of observational constraints. Here we report on the discovery of VFTS 352, an O-type binary in the 30 Doradus region, as…
The stellar mass-luminosity relation is poorly constrained by observations for high mass stars. We describe our program to find eclipsing massive binaries in the Magellanic Clouds using photometry of regions rich in massive stars, and our…
The maximum mass of a neutron star has important implications across multiple research fields, including astrophysics, nuclear physics and gravitational wave astronomy. Compact binary millisecond pulsars (with orbital periods shorter than…
We present new results from a study of high quality, red spectra of the massive binary star system HD 1383 (B0.5 Ib + B0.5 Ib). We determined radial velocities and revised orbital elements (P = 20.28184 +/- 0.0002 d) and made Doppler…
From the radial velocities of the N IV 4058 and He II 4686 emission lines, and the N V 4604-20 absorption lines, determined in digital spectra, we report the discovery that the X-ray bright emission line star Wack 2134 (= WR 21a) is a…
Aims. HD166734 is an eccentric eclipsing binary system composed of two supergiant O-type stars, orbiting with a 34.5-day period. In this rare configuration for such stars, the two objects mainly evolve independently, following single-star…
We present the first SB2 orbital solution and disentanglement of the massive Wolf-Rayet binary R145 (P = 159d) located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The primary was claimed to have a stellar mass greater than 300Msun, making it a candidate…
We present results from the B-type Binaries Characterisation (BBC) programme, a multi-epoch spectroscopic study of 88 early B-type binary candidates in the 30 Doradus region of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). From radial-velocity analysis…
We present a new deep (down to V ~ 24) photometry of a wide region (6'x 6') around the LMC globular cluster NGC1866: our sample is complete, down to 3 mag below the brightest MS star. Detailed comparisons with various theoretical scenarios…
LIGO/Virgo Collaboration reported the detection of the most massive black hole - black hole (BH-BH) merger up to date with component masses of 85 Msun and 66 Msun (GW190521). Motivated by recent observations of massive stars in the 30…
The LIGO/Virgo gravitational--wave observatories have detected 50 BH-BH coalescences. This sample is large enough to have allowed several recent studies to draw conclusions about the branching ratios between isolated binaries versus dense…
We present the results of an optical and X-ray monitoring campaign on the short-period massive SB2 binary HD 152218. Combining our HiRes spectroscopic data with previous observations, we unveil the contradictions between the published…
WR 20a is the most massive close-in binary known in our Galaxy. It is composed of two $\approx$80 M$_\odot$ Wolf-Rayet stars with a short period of $\approx$3.7 days in the open cluster Westerlund 2. As such, WR 20a presents us with a…
The Magellanic Clouds host a large population of high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) systems, but although the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is an order of magnitude more massive than the Small Magellanic Cloud, significantly fewer HMXBs are…
We present a comprehensive study of the massive binary system HM1~8, based on multi-epoch high resolution spectroscopy, $V$-band photometry and archival X-ray data. Spectra from the OWN Survey, a high resolution optical monitoring of…
In this paper, we collect a sample of 81 ellipsoidal red giant binaries in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and we study their orbital natures individually and statistically. The sample contains 59 systems with circular orbits and 22…
A survey of 30 nearby M6.0-M7.5 dwarfs with Ks<12 mag utilizing the Hokupa'a adaptive optics system at the Gemini North Telescope has discovered 3 new binary systems. All 3 systems have separations between 0.12-0.29 arcsec (3-10 AU) with…
We present a spectroscopic analysis of MWC 314, a luminous blue variable (LBV) candidate with an extended bipolar nebula. The detailed spectroscopic variability is investigated to determine if MWC 314 is a massive binary system with a…