THE BANANA PROJECT. III. SPIN-ORBIT ALIGNMENT IN THE LONG-PERIOD ECLIPSING BINARY NY CEPHEI
Author(s)
Albrecht, Simon H.
Winn, Joshua Nathan
Carter, Joshua Adam
Snellen, Ignas A. G.
Mooij, Ernst J. W. de
Date Issued
December 2010
Journal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
Institute of Physics Publishing
Citation
Albrecht, Simon et al. “THE BANANA PROJECT. III. SPIN-ORBIT ALIGNMENT IN THE LONG-PERIOD ECLIPSING BINARY NY CEPHEI.” The Astrophysical Journal 726.2 (2011): 68. Web.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Binaries are not always neatly aligned. Previous observations of the DI Her system showed that the spin axes of both stars are highly inclined with respect to one another and the orbital axis. Here, we report on a measurement of the spin-axis orientation of the primary star of the NY Cep system, which is similar to DI Her in many respects: it features two young early-type stars (~6 Myr, B0.5V+B2V), in an eccentric and relatively long-period orbit (e = 0.48, P = 15fd3). The sky projections of the rotation vector and the spin vector are well aligned (beta [subscript p] = 2[degrees] ± 4[degrees]), in strong contrast to DI Her. Although no convincing explanation has yet been given for the misalignment of DI Her, our results show that the phenomenon is not universal, and that a successful theory will need to account for the different outcome in the case of NY Cep.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/726/2/68
