On the δ Scuti star in the eclipsing binary WX Eridani ^*,**

¹ Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België, Ringlaan 3, 1180 Brussel, Belgium
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C., Denmark
³ Beersel Hills Observatory, Laarheidestraat 166, 1650 Beersel, Belgium
⁴ Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
⁵ Esteve Duran Observatory Foundation, Montseny 46 – Urb. El Montanya, 08553 Seva, Spain

Corresponding author: T. Arentoft, toar@phys.au.dk

Received: 21 October 2003
Accepted: 11 January 2004

Abstract

WX Eri is an eclipsing binary system for which one component was reported to show δ Scuti type pulsations with periods close to integer fractions of the orbital period. This makes it an interesting candidate for investigating the interaction between binarity and pulsation and a potential new member of the recently defined group of mass-accreting pulsating components (gainers) in semi-detached Algol binaries called “oscillating EA” stars. We present new photometric time-series observations of this star. The Wilson-Devinney code was applied to find the best fitting model for the eclipsing binary's light curve. The aim of the observations was to investigate the short-period δ Scuti type pulsations of WX Eri. However, no evidence for the presence of such oscillations was found in our data.