A low-metallicity massive contact binary undergoing slow Case A mass transfer: A detailed spectroscopic and orbital analysis of SSN 7 in NGC 346 in the SMC

Abstract

Most massive stars are believed to be born in close binary systems where they can exchange mass, which impacts the evolution of both binary components. Their evolution is of great interest in the search for the progenitors of gravitational waves. However, there are unknowns in the physics of mass transfer as observational examples are rare, especially at low metallicity. Nearby low-metallicity environments are particularly interesting hunting grounds for interacting systems as they act as the closest proxy for the early universe where we can resolve individual stars. Using multi-epoch spectroscopic data, we complete a consistent spectral and orbital analysis of the early-type massive binary SSN 7 hosting a ON If${}^{\ast }$+O5.5 V((f)) star. Using these detailed results, we constrain an evolutionary scenario that can help us to understand binary evolution in low metallicity. We were able to derive reliable radial velocities of the two components from the multi-epoch data, which were used to constrain the orbital parameters. The spectroscopic data covers the UV, optical, and near-IR, allowing a consistent analysis with the stellar atmosphere code, PoWR. Given the stellar and orbital parameters, we interpreted the results using binary evolutionary models. The two stars in the system have comparable luminosities of $\log (L_1/L_{\odot })=5.75$ and $\log (L_2/L_{\odot })=5.78$ for the primary and secondary, respectively, but have different temperatures ($T_1=43.6\mathrm{kK}$ and $T_2=38.7\mathrm{kK}$). The primary ($32M_{\odot }$) is less massive than the secondary ($55M_{\odot }$), suggesting mass exchange. The mass estimates are confirmed by the orbital analysis. The revisited orbital period is $3\mathrm{d}$. Our evolutionary models also predict mass exchange. Currently, the system is a contact binary undergoing a slow Case A phase, making it the most massive [Abridged]

arXiv comment20 pages

References in corpus (73)

• emcee: The MCMC Hammer
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA)
• Gaia Data Release 3: Summary of the content and survey properties
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Giant Planets, Oscillations, Rotation, and Massive Stars
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Binaries, Pulsations, and Explosions
• How Massive Single Stars End their Life
• Binary interaction dominates the evolution of massive stars
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Convective Boundaries, Element Diffusion, and Massive Star Explosions
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Pulsating Variable Stars, Rotation, Convective Boundaries, and Energy Conservation
• Mass-loss predictions for O and B stars as a function of metallicity
• Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational wave event
• Mind your Ps and Qs: the Interrelation between Period (P) and Mass-ratio (Q) Distributions of Binary Stars
• Presupernova Evolution of Rotating Massive Stars I: Numerical Method and Evolution of the Internal Stellar Structure
• Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars
• Dynamo action by differential rotation in a stably stratified stellar interior
• A Computational Guide to Physics of Eclipsing Binaries. Paper I. Demonstrations and Perspectives
• Rotating Massive Main-Sequence Stars I: Grids of Evolutionary Models and Isochrones
• From hadrons to quarks in neutron stars: a review
• A new route towards merging massive black holes
• Southern Massive Stars at High Angular Resolution: Observational Campaign and Companion Detection
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey VIII. Multiplicity properties of the O-type star population
• The Galactic O-Star Spectroscopic Survey (GOSSS). II. Bright Southern Stars
• The Galactic O-Star Spectroscopic Survey. I. Classification System and Bright Northern Stars in the Blue-Violet at R~2500
• Grids of stellar models with rotation - III. Models from 0.8 to 120 Msun at a metallicity Z = 0.002
• The Mass of the Black Hole in Cygnus X-1
• Physics Of Eclipsing Binaries. II. Towards the Increased Model Fidelity
• Parametrizing the exoplanet eccentricity distribution with the Beta distribution
• On the Role of Massive Stars in the Support and Destruction of Giant Molecular Clouds
• The IACOB project: I. Rotational velocities in Northern Galactic O and early B-type stars revisited. The impact of other sources of line-broadening
• Cygnus X-1 contains a 21-solar mass black hole -- implications for massive star winds
• A coordinated X-ray and Optical Campaign of the Nearest Massive Eclipsing Binary, $\delta$ Orionis Aa: IV. A multiwavelength, non-LTE spectroscopic analysis
• The elemental composition of the Sun I. The intermediate mass elements Na to Ca
• The VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars: Evolution of surface N abundances and effective temperature scales in the Galaxy and Magellanic Clouds
• The VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars: Surface chemical compositions of B-type stars in the Magellanic Clouds
• Current Status of r-Process Nucleosynthesis
• Physics of Eclipsing Binaries. V. General Framework for Solving the Inverse Problem
• Revised Stellar Temperatures for Magellanic Cloud O Supergiants from FUSE and VLT-UVES Spectroscopy
• Feedback from Winds and Supernovae in Massive Stellar Clusters. I: Hydrodynamics
• A-type Supergiant Abundances in the SMC: Probes of Evolution
• The Wolf-Rayet stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud: A comprehensive analysis of the WN class
• A Complete Survey of Case A Binary Evolution with Comparison to Observed Algol-Type Systems
• Upper limits on the rates of binary neutron star and neutron-star--black-hole mergers from Advanced LIGO's first observing run
• Efficiency of mass transfer in massive close binaries, Tests from double-lined eclipsing binaries in the SMC
• Spitzer SAGE-SMC Infrared Photometry of Massive Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars: Wind properties and evolution of hot massive stars in the LMC
• On the consistent treatment of the quasi-hydrostatic layers in hot star atmospheres
• The Joker: A custom Monte Carlo sampler for binary-star and exoplanet radial velocity data
• Constraining mixing in massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Distribution of Pressures in a Supernova-Driven Interstellar Medium. I. Magnetized Medium
• Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud: I. Analysis of the single WN stars
• Early magnetic B-type stars: X-ray emission and wind properties
• Testing massive star evolution, star-formation history and feedback at low metallicity : Spectroscopic analysis of OB stars in the SMC Wing
• Past and present star formation in the SMC: NGC 346 and its neighborhood
• Why binary interaction does not necessarily dominate the formation of Wolf-Rayet stars at low metallicity
• Physics of Eclipsing Binaries. III. Spin-Orbit Misalignment
• X-ray emission from interacting massive binaries: a review of 15 years of progress
• Physics of Eclipsing Binaries. IV. The impact of interstellar extinction on the light curves of eclipsing binaries
• Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model
• Stellar population of the superbubble N206 in the LMC II. Parameters of the OB and WR stars, and the total massive star feedback
• A census of massive stars in NGC 346. Stellar parameters and rotational velocities
• Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud as testbed for massive star evolution
• An X-ray investigation of the NGC346 field in the SMC (1) : the LBV HD5980 and the NGC346 cluster
• The impact of rotation on the line profiles of Wolf-Rayet stars
• A synthetic population of Wolf-Rayet stars in the LMC based on detailed single and binary star evolution models
• Stellar wind properties of the nearly complete sample of O stars in the low metallicity young star cluster NGC346 in the SMC galaxy
• Quantitative spectral classification of Galactic O stars
• An all-sky catalog of solar-type dwarfs for exoplanetary transit surveys
• The X-ray catalog of spectroscopically identified Galactic O stars: Investigating the dependence of X-ray luminosity on stellar and wind parameters
• Far-Ultraviolet & Halpha Spectroscopy of SNR0057-7226 in the SMC HII Region N66
• The earliest O-type eclipsing binary in the Small Magellanic Cloud, AzV 476: A comprehensive analysis reveals surprisingly low stellar masses
• The Wolf-Rayet binaries of the nitrogen sequence in the Large Magellanic Cloud: spectroscopy, orbital analysis, formation, and evolution
• Spectroscopic and evolutionary analyses of the binary system AzV 14 outline paths toward the WR stage at low metallicity
• The effects of rotation on massive star spectroscopic observables

Cited by in corpus (7)

• X-Shooting ULLYSES: Massive Stars at low metallicity VIII. Stellar and wind parameters of newly revealed stripped stars in Be binaries
• Detecting Population III Stars through Tidal Disruption Events in the Era of JWST and Roman
• The drastic impact of Eddington-limit induced mass ejections on massive star populations
• Detection of extragalactic magnetic massive stars
• A Low Metallicity Massive Contact Binary Star System Candidate in WLM identified by Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope imaging
• First JWST/NIRSpec Spectroscopy of O Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Determining stellar properties of massive stars in NGC346 in the SMC with a Bayesian statistic technique