Bibcode
Reinecke, N.; Eversberg, T.; Gandet, T. L.; Okazaki, A. T.; Zharikov, S. V.; Martin, J.; Thizy, O.; Mauclaire, B.; Pollmann, E.; Heathcote, B.; Buil, C.; Knapen, J. H.; Garrel, T.; Fernando, A.; Ribeiro, J.; Gvaramadze, V. V.; Štefl, S.; Rivinius, Th.; Carciofi, A. C.; Manset, N.; Pasechnik, A. V.; Miroshnichenko, A. S.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 766, Issue 2, article id. 119, 10 pp. (2013).
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2013
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Citations
18
Refereed citations
16
Description
We describe the results of the world-wide observing campaign of the
highly eccentric Be binary system δ Scorpii 2011 periastron
passage which involved professional and amateur astronomers. Our
spectroscopic observations provided a precise measurement of the system
orbital period at 10.8092 ± 0.0005 yr. Fitting of the He II 4686
Å line radial velocity curve determined the periastron passage
time on 2011 July 3, UT 9:20 with a 0.9-day uncertainty. Both these
results are in a very good agreement with recent findings from
interferometry. We also derived new evolutionary masses of the binary
components (13 and 8.2 M ☉) and a new distance of 136
pc from the Sun, consistent with the HIPPARCOS parallax. The radial
velocity and profile variations observed in the Hα line near the
2011 periastron reflected the interaction of the secondary component and
the circumstellar disk around the primary component. Using these data,
we estimated a disk radius of 150 R ☉. Our analysis of
the radial velocity variations measured during the periastron passage
time in 2000 and 2011 along with those measured during the 20th century,
the high eccentricity of the system, and the presence of a bow
shock-like structure around it suggest that δ Sco might be a
runaway triple system. The third component should be external to the
known binary and move on an elliptical orbit that is tilted by at least
40° with respect to the binary orbital plane for such a system to be
stable and responsible for the observed long-term radial velocity
variations.
This paper is partially based on observations obtained at the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National
Research Council of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de
l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique de France,
and the University of Hawaii, the 2.2 m MPG telescope operated at
ESO/La Silla under program IDs 086.A-9019 and 087.A-9005, the IAC80
telescope in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide of the Instituto de
Astrofiísica de Canarias, and data from the ELODIE archive at the
Observatoire de Haute-Provence.
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