We present a new set of radial-velocity measurements of the spectroscopic binary HD 165052 obtained by disentangling of high-resolution optical spectra. The longitude of the periastron (60 +- 2 degrees) shows a variation with respect to previous studies. We have determined the apsidal motion rate of the system (12.1 +- 0.3 degree/yr), which was used to calculate the absolute masses of the binary components: M_1 = 22.5 +- 1.0 and M_2 = 20.5 +- 0.9 solar masses. Analysing the separated spectra we have re-classified the components as O7Vz and O7.5Vz stars.
The eccentric massive binary HD152248 (also known as V1007 Sco), which hosts two O7.5 III-II(f) stars, is the most emblematic eclipsing O-star binary in the very young and rich open cluster NGC6231. Its properties render the system an interesting target for studying tidally induced apsidal motion. Measuring the rate of apsidal motion in such a binary system gives insight into the internal structure and evolutionary state of the stars composing it. A large set of optical spectra was used to reconstruct the spectra of the individual binary components and establish their radial velocities using a disentangling code. Radial velocities measured over seven decades were used to establish the rate of apsidal motion. We furthermore analysed the reconstructed spectra with the CMFGEN model atmosphere code to determine stellar and wind properties of the system. Optical photometry was analysed with the Nightfall binary star code. A complete photometric and radial velocity model was constructed in PHOEBE 2 to determine robust uncertainties. We find a rate of apsidal motion of $(1.843^{+0.064}_{-0.083})deg$ yr$^{-1}$. The photometric data indicate an orbital inclination of $(67.6^{+0.2}_{-0.1})deg$ and Roche-lobe filling factors of both stars of about 0.86. Absolute masses of $29.5^{+0.5}_{-0.4}$M$_odot$ and mean stellar radii of $15.07^{+0.08}_{-0.12}$R$_odot$ are derived for both stars. We infer an observational value for the internal structure constant of both stars of $0.0010pm0.0001$. Our in-depth analysis of the massive binary HD152248 and the redetermination of its fundamental parameters can serve as a basis for the construction of stellar evolution models to determine theoretical rates of apsidal motion to be compared with the observational one. In addition, the system hosts two twin stars, which offers a unique opportunity to obtain direct insight into the internal structure of the stars.
Massive binary systems are important laboratories in which to probe the properties of massive stars and stellar physics in general. In this context, we analysed optical spectroscopy and photometry of the eccentric short-period early-type binary HD 152218 in the young open cluster NGC 6231. We reconstructed the spectra of the individual stars using a separating code. The individual spectra were then compared with synthetic spectra obtained with the CMFGEN model atmosphere code. We furthermore analysed the light curve of the binary and used it to constrain the orbital inclination and to derive absolute masses of 19.8 +/- 1.5 and 15.0 +/- 1.1 solar masses. Combining radial velocity measurements from over 60 years, we show that the system displays apsidal motion at a rate of (2.04^{+.23}_{-.24}) degree/year. Solving the Clairaut-Radau equation, we used stellar evolution models, obtained with the CLES code, to compute the internal structure constants and to evaluate the theoretically predicted rate of apsidal motion as a function of stellar age and primary mass. In this way, we determine an age of 5.8 +/- 0.6 Myr for HD 152218, which is towards the higher end of, but compatible with, the range of ages of the massive star population of NGC 6231 as determined from isochrone fitting.
Apsidal motion in massive eccentric binaries offers precious information about the internal structure of the stars. This is especially true for twin binaries consisting of two nearly identical stars. We make use of the tidally induced apsidal motion in the twin binary HD152248 to infer constraints on the internal structure of the O7.5 III-II stars composing this system. We build stellar evolution models with the code Cles assuming different prescriptions for the internal mixing occurring inside the stars. We identify the models that best reproduce the observationally determined present-day properties of the components of HD152248, as well as their $k_2$, and the apsidal motion rate of the system. We analyse the impact of some poorly constrained input parameters, including overshooting, turbulent diffusion, and metallicity. We further build single and binary GENEC models that account for stellar rotation to investigate the impacts of binarity and rotation. We discuss some effects that could bias our interpretation of the apsidal motion in terms of the internal structure constant. Reproducing the observed $k_2$ value and rate of apsidal motion simultaneously with the other stellar parameters requires a significant amount of internal mixing or enhanced mass-loss. The results suggest that a single-star evolution model is sufficient to describe the physics inside this binary system. Qualitatively, the high turbulent diffusion required to reproduce the observations could be partly attributed to stellar rotation. Higher-order terms in the apsidal motion are negligible. Only a very severe misalignment of the rotation axes could significantly impact the rate of apsidal motion, but such a high misalignment is highly unlikely in such a binary system. We infer an age estimate of $5.15pm0.13$ Myr for the binary and initial masses of $32.8pm0.6$ M$_odot$ for both stars.
We study the excitation and damping of tides in close binary systems, accounting for the leading order nonlinear corrections to linear tidal theory. These nonlinear corrections include two distinct effects: three-mode nonlinear interactions and nonlinear excitation of modes by the time-varying gravitational potential of the companion. This paper presents the formalism for studying nonlinear tides and studies the nonlinear stability of the linear tidal flow. Although the formalism is applicable to binaries containing stars, planets, or compact objects, we focus on solar type stars with stellar or planetary companions. Our primary results include: (1) The linear tidal solution often used in studies of binary evolution is unstable over much of the parameter space in which it is employed. More specifically, resonantly excited gravity waves are unstable to parametric resonance for companion masses M > 10-100 M_Earth at orbital periods P = 1-10 days. The nearly static equilibrium tide is, however, parametrically stable except for solar binaries with P < 2-5 days. (2) For companion masses larger than a few Jupiter masses, the dynamical tide causes waves to grow so rapidly that they must be treated as traveling waves rather than standing waves. (3) We find a novel form of parametric instability in which a single parent wave excites a very large number of daughter waves (N = 10^3[P / 10 days]) and drives them as a single coherent unit with growth rates that are ~N times faster than the standard three wave parametric instability. (4) Independent of the parametric instability, tides excite a wide range of stellar p-modes and g-modes by nonlinear inhomogeneous forcing; this coupling appears particularly efficient at draining energy out of the dynamical tide and may be more important than either wave breaking or parametric resonance at determining the nonlinear dissipation of the dynamical tide.
Short period binary systems containing magnetic Ap stars are anomalously rare. This apparent anomaly may provide insight into the origin of the magnetic fields in theses stars. As an early investigation of this, we observed three close binary systems that have been proposed to host Ap stars. Two of these systems (HD 22128 and HD 56495) we find contain Am stars, but not Ap stars. However, for one system (HD 98088) we find the primary is indeed an Ap star, while the secondary is an Am star. Additionally, the Ap star is tidally locked to the secondary, and the predominately dipolar magnetic field of the Ap star is roughly aligned with the secondary. Further investigations of HD 98088 are planned by the BinaMIcS collaboration.