• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.187-197
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• 2014

We have investigated the dynamical stability of the proposed companions orbiting the Algol type short-period eclipsing binary SW Lyncis (Kim et al. 2010). The two candidate companions are of stellar to substellar nature, and were inferred from timing measurements of the system's primary and secondary eclipses. We applied well-tested numerical techniques to accurately integrate the orbits of the two companions and to test for chaotic dynamical behavior. We carried out the stability analysis within a systematic parameter survey varying both the geometries and orientation of the orbits of the companions, as well as their masses. In all our numerical integrations we found that the proposed SW Lyn multi-body system is highly unstable on time-scales on the order of 1000 years. Our results cast doubt on the interpretation that the timing variations are caused by two companions. This work demonstrates that a straightforward dynamical analysis can help to test whether a best-fit companion-based model is a physically viable explanation for measured eclipse timing variations. We conclude that dynamical considerations reveal that the proposed SW Lyncis multi-body system most likely does not exist or the companions have significantly different orbital properties from those conjectured in Kim et al. (2010).

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.263-278
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• 2010

Many filtered CCD measures form the basis of six new light curves of the eclipsing system SW Lyn. From these measures and additional observations for eclipse timing, 47 new times of minimum light over the time-interval of about 13 years have been calculated. The complex period variability can be sorted into a linear period improvement with 5.8-year and 33.9-year periodic terms. The shorter cyclic term of these is ascribed to a cool companion of the eclipsing pair but the longer one has no testable interpretation at present. The new light curves are synthesized by the 2003 version of the Wilson-Devinney differential corrections computer code. The results incorporate a source of "third light" which comes from the cool companion star that had been identified by the cycling of the period of the eclipsing pair and also had previously been identified spectroscopically. There is a measure of satisfaction with current understanding of the SW Lyn eclipsing system because of consistent syntheses of all historical light curves. This agreeable convergence, however, comes partly at the expense of an unanticipated temperature of the hot star and of a photospheric spot that has no obvious basis in the detached character modeled for the binary. We offer predictions of changes in the stellar parameters if the modeled detached-configuration should be wrong. The SW Lyn stellar system is still difficult to understand.