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Star Spots on AR Lac Type Stars
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 March 2016
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There is no generally accepted definition of AR Lac Stars, and the term RS CVn stars is used interchangeably or to refer to a particular subgroup. For the purposes of this discussion I use the term AR Lac stars to refer to detached close binaries showing Ca II emission in at least the cooler component outside eclipse, the hotter component being a main-sequence or subgiant star of spectral type F or G. Most of the systems show irregularities in their light curves as well as period changes. In order to determine whether a system is detached, one must know both the mass ratio and the relative radii. The determination of minimum masses is a fairly straightforward spectroscopic task, and provisional values are available for 22 of the systems, two or possibly three of them being non-eclipsing. All but 3 (AD Cap, RT Lac, RV Lib) have masses of the two components within 30% of each other. Because of appreciable irregularities in the light curves, the radii are subject to considerable uncertainty even when photometry of good precision is available. Nevertheless the 9 systems with very provisional radii all appear to be detached. These all have mass ratios near unity. We may assume, as a working hypothesis, that the other systems with mass ratios near unity are also detached and hence also belong in the AR Lac group. Most of the data referred to are to be found in IBVS 1083.
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